Ah! My Goddess!: Haloes
by Davner
Summary: Tenderness can be cruel, and the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Released ten years after being sealed by Hild, Belldandy must come to grips with a shocking betrayal. Chapter 38 is now up.
1. Chapter 1

_Foreword: After a six-month deployment, I'm finally back and back into writing. I didn't write much of anything while I was away, but did have some ideas that I'll be playing with in the coming months. To start things off, I present to you something a little different. Those who've read my stuff before know that I like to try different things, and "Haloes," below, is a prime example of that._

_Like I said with "Scordatura," it's not everyone's cup of tea, but such is life. I hope you enjoy it._

_Thank you._

_Davner_

_Disclaimer: AMG is not mine. Urd's ring tone is from "Halo" by Beyonce._

**Ah! My Goddess!: Haloes**

**Chapter 1**

**Signed, Sealed and Delivered**

She hit the bed and blinked, trying to remember who she was and where. The disorientation didn't last longer than it took to blink her eyes three more times. By then she knew who and what she was, but was still foggy on where.

Turning her head, her blue eyes came to rest on a familiar figure leaning against the wall.

"Good morning, glamour girl," the demon said with a smile. "How was your beauty nap?"

"Hild?" she asked sleepily. "Wh..."

The CEO of the Demonic Realm smiled and filled a glass from a metal pitcher nearby. "You must be thirsty," she said, offering the glass of water to the goddess. "Go ahead. Drink up."

She looked at the glass without even a hint of suspicion. It wasn't her way. In hindsight, if it had been she might not have fallen for that trick in the first pl...

The goddess shot up, sitting ramrod straight and locking her eyes on Hild. "What have you done to me!?" she demanded. "Where is Keiichi?! Have you harmed him!?"

Hild grinned. "Belldandy, really," she began. "Why would I want to hurt Keiichi? As for what I've done to you, you can relax. You weren't down that long..."

Belldandy blinked at her as the answer hit her. "You sealed me," she whispered.

"That I did," Hild oozed.

The goddess looked anxiously about the room. It looked like a sleazy love hotel, but not something one might find in Hell. "How long?" she demanded.

"A blink of an eye by our reckoning..."

"HOW LONG?!" she repeated angrily.

Hild smiled. "Just shy of a decade."

Belldandy bit her lip. "Why?"

The demon shrugged. "Why not? You and your activities here on Earth were annoying me." She sighed. "Young Marller thought driving you back to Heaven was the way to go, but the problem with that is that it required you to decide to leave. As you may have noticed, child, I'm not a patient woman." Her expression turned cold. "And quite frankly you were starting to really piss... me... off."

The goddess hopped out of bed and faced her. "If you've harmed Keiichi..."

"Keiichi?" Hild asked with a smile. "Oh, no, no, no... A lot has changed since you've been away." She turned away from Belldandy and grinned. "Keiichi's off limits nowadays. You could say it's not worth the trouble I'd call down on myself to play with him anymore." She turned back and seemed to take pleasure from the puzzled ire in Belldandy's eyes. "But you'll see what I mean."

"What..."

Hild waved her away dismissively. "You may go," she said simply. "Go on. Scat!"

Half expecting a trap, Belldandy started cautiously for the door.

"Tell Keiichi and Urd I said hi," Hild tossed to her.

Belldandy paused for barely a second before rushing out the door. She ran across the parking lot and leapt onto a telephone pole, trying to get her bearings and making her way to the temple as fast as she could. She was free, and Keiichi was waiting for her. She knew it in her heart.

Although it had been ten years and there was no way to be sure they'd even still be at the shrine, it was the only place Belldandy could think to go. After a fifteen minute hop across Nekomi, she found herself once again rushing under the temple's torii gate. The place looked... different... that was for sure. Some of the trees were gone... and there were carnival rides in the backyard...

... and what appeared to be the remains of a crashed flying saucer half buried near the tanuki statue...

She rushed up to the door and stopped suddenly. She couldn't just barge in. What if he had moved and someone else was living here? It would be rude.

The goddess reached up and knocked twice, waiting anxiously as she bounced up and down in nervous anticipation. What would he say? What was SHE going to say? It had been ten years, after all, a blink of the eye for a goddess but a significant portion of a mortal's life.

_He's probably changed so much,_ she thought. _Would he even still want me? _

The door opened, and Belldandy gasped in delight at the face that met her.

"NEESAN!" she cried, leaping out and hugging her sister. "You're still here! Thank the Almighty One!"

She felt Urd stiffen under her hug for a moment before tentatively returning it.

"Belldandy?!" she cried. "Is it... Is it really you?"

The younger Norn stepped back and smiled. "Hai!" She took a quick look at her older sister, amazed about how much had changed. She remembered seeing her only a day ago. For Urd ten years had passed, and somehow it showed. There was something about her, something about the way she held herself, and something else.

Fright.

Urd hugged her again, tightly this time. "I'm so glad you're okay," she whispered. "When did Hild let you out?"

"Only twenty minutes ago," Belldandy told her.

"What did she say?" Urd asked.

Belldandy blinked at the question, asked so quickly and demandingly.

"Nothing that struck me as odd," Belldandy told her. "Just that I annoyed her. Why?"

Urd licked her lips nervously. "Nothing," she said. "Um... Come in! I'll make some tea..." She turned to lead her sister into the temple and suddenly stopped and whirled around again, her left hand lashing out to block the way. "Wait! No! I mean..." She smiled nervously. "Could you.... Could you wait here a sec? The place is a wreck..."

"Oh, Neesan, I don't care about th..."

"Yeah, but... Um... It'll just take a second to..." Her eye glanced to the hand holding the doorframe, and she suddenly dropped it, covering it with her right. "Just a sec, okay?!"

Before Belldandy could protest, the elder Norn disappeared inside the house, practically slamming the door shut between them.

Belldandy's hand went to her chest, surprised at her sister's actions. Urd had obviously changed a great deal in ten years. After all, in her long memory, she had never seen her sister clean...

If that's what you could call the sounds she was hearing through the door. There was a lot of crashing, the sound of drawers slamming shut, and the sound of glass breaking.

"Dammit!" she heard her sister swear. Another drawer closing, and suddenly the door was open again, and her sister was standing there, a big but awkward smile on her face. "Come on in."

Belldandy followed Urd into the house, wondering if her sister was all right. Her behavior seemed a little suspicious, and the goddess wondered if this was somehow Hild's doing. Her eyes traveled over her home, noting the many changes that had been made over the years. It was tidy, but not immaculate, and the furniture had been replaced with newer, more comfortable leather pieces. A large, flat-screen high-definition TV hung on the wall, but it was the lack of certain items that caught her eye.

There were blank spaces on the shelves where things were supposed to sit, the only hint of their recent abandonment spaces where dust had not yet settled.

Urd didn't give her time to investigate. "Come on, I'll make us some tea."

Belldandy followed her into the kitchen and watched as Urd started pulling cups out of the cabinet. She chuckled, catching Belldandy's attention with the sound.

"You remember that time Keiichi took us all to that beach party with the Sci-Fi Club, and we all got hammered?" she asked with a smile. "And we put Tamiya kun and Sora chan into that tent together after they passed out, and when they woke up they thought they had gotten drunk and slept together?"

The Norn blinked in shock. She had no memory at all of that happening. Beach party? Was this code?

Urd stared at her, waiting for her to say something.

Belldandy swallowed sadly. "Neesan," she whispered. "I think you must be thinking of something that happened after I... left." She looked down at the table and bit her lip.

"But you do remember when Peorth first got here, right?" Urd asked.

The younger Norn looked up and blinked. "Of course I do."

"Remember how Otaki kun fell in love with her?" Urd asked as she put the kettle on the stove.

Belldandy blinked again. "No, you're wrong. That was Tamiya senpai."

"Remember how she took us all on a 'date,' and we went to the zoo?" Urd asked.

"We went to the aquarium," Belldandy corrected her. "We saw the mollusk exhibit. Neesan, what is this all about?"

Urd seemed to let out a sigh of relief. "It IS you," she whispered. "Thank the Almighty..."

"Neesan..."

"I'm sorry, Sis. I had to be sure," Urd told her. "There was a... well... an incident... a few years back. Look, it's a long story, and it's not even the most important one right now..."

"Urd... where's Keiichi san?"

"He's at work," Urd replied, a hint of pride entering her voice. "He's an engineer at Sukuya Aerospace."

"Really?" Belldandy asked happily, but puzzled. "But... I thought he wanted to work with motorcycles..."

"Uh... yeah," Urd allowed. "Like I said... a lot of changes."

"Tell me about them!" Belldandy begged, rising to her feet. "Please, Neesan? I want to know everything before he gets home! I want to pick up right where we left off! Please, Nessan!"

Urd swallowed nervously. "Belldandy, I..." She turned back to the stove as the kettle started to whistle.

"How is he?" Belldandy asked nervously. "Is he well? Is he happy?"

The older goddess didn't answer.

"You've been taking care of him, haven't you?" Belldandy asked her, pride in her sister entering her voice. Urd stiffened. "I knew you would. You and he always had a good relationship, even if it didn't always seem that way."

Before Urd could answer, a song began to play.

_Everywhere I'm looking now,_

_I'm surrounded by your embrace,_

_Baby, I can see your halo,_

_You know you're my saving grace..._

Urd reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a cell phone. "Sorry! Just a sec!" She turned to the sink as she brought the phone to her ear and whispered into it. "Hey!... Yeah!.... Look, I'm a little busy right now.... Yeah, that sounds great.... I.... I'm sorry, I have to go. I'll tell you later, okay?... Okay... Yeah... Okay, bye." She snapped the phone closed and turned back to Belldandy...

...only to find her gone.

888

While her sister spoke to her friend on the phone, Belldandy had decided to give them some privacy and wandered back into the living room. It was hard to reconcile the fact that yesterday she had cleaned this room and today it belonged to someone else and had for a decade. She felt almost like a stranger. She eyed the dust on the shelves critically. She would have to give it a good dusting before Keiichi san got home.

Glancing around the room, her eyes came to rest on a small desk drawer that was slightly ajar. Reflexively, she reached out to shut it, but her hand paused on the brass handle. A sliver of light reflected off glass within. She pulled the drawer open and found a stack of framed photographs.

She blinked at the top one. A familiar airplane sat in a hangar with a group of people standing and kneeling in front of it, including Keiichi, Urd and...

"Sif?" she whispered. "What is she doing here?" The group held a banner in front of them that said, "First Flight."

The goddess moved the photo to the bottom of the stack and looked at the next one. She swallowed and cleared her throat at the sight of her older sister in a white chemise, lounging luxuriously on a black sofa. Glancing at the top, she saw it was the cover of a lingerie catalogue. At the bottom, a note in the oldest Norn's handwriting read, "To my number one fan. Urd."

Biting her lip, Belldandy moved to the next photo and froze. The framed photograph showed an older Keiichi with Urd's arms around him, the two of them posing cheek to cheek.

Belldandy's breath started to quicken. With great trepidation, she uncovered the last photo. It was actually four photos arranged top to bottom like the kind that came from mall photo booths. The top had the goddess and mortal sitting together, the second they had their arms around one another. The third showed them sticking their tongues out at the camera. And the fourth...

Her blood ran cold at the sight of her sister and Keiichi kissing. It couldn't be...

She heard movement behind her and turned.

"Don't be mad," Urd begged quickly as she stood there. She swallowed nervously. "Please... let me explain first..."

"How... _could you_?" Belldandy whispered, devastated by her discovery.

Urd's mouth opened, but no sound emerged. Light reflected off the tears pooling in her eyes. "I... I didn't mean to," she said, sounding like a child who had just been confronted with the vase she had broken. "I mean... I didn't start out hoping this would happen. It just... It just _did_."

"My own sister," Belldandy whispered, her eyes closing painfully as her hand went to her chest to reel back the sobs that would soon emerge. "How could you?"

"It was ten years, Belldandy," Urd told her sadly.

"It was _yesterday_, Neesan!" the younger goddess cried, the anger she was feeling starting to come to the fore. "Yesterday! To me it was _yesterday!_ I stood here _yesterday_ after making him breakfast, telling him to have a good day at school! _Yesterday!_"

Urd said nothing. Belldandy turned away from her.

"You really wanted him to wait forever?" Urd asked quietly. Belldandy turned to her, jealous wrath and betrayal marring her delicate features. "He tried, Belldandy. I'll give him credit for that."

Belldandy glared at her. Urd went on.

"The world didn't just up and stop while you were away, Sis," Urd told her, a tear running down her cheek. "You went to sleep and woke up ten years later. He had to _endure_ it, the whole decade, loving you and worrying about you and wondering if he'd ever see you again. It _ate_ at him, Sis. Like a cancer. It changed the entire direction of his life." She turned away. "At first, I just wanted to look after him for you, help him out, work to find you." She looked up at the ceiling. "God, how am I supposed to condense ten years into a few sentences for you?"

"Try," Belldandy commanded, steel in her voice. A betrayal of this magnitude demanded an explanation, and she would have one.

Urd shot her a glare. "All right. Sit down, drink your damn tea, and I'll tell you everything."

Belldandy marched past her, the photos still in her hand, and sat down at the table. She sipped her tea and simmered angrily as she waited for Urd to sit down.

The elder Norn sat across from her and began...

**_Ten years ago..._**

_You had been gone for two weeks, and Keiichi had been pulling his hair out worrying about you. We knew Hild had you, it wasn't as if she was making a secret out of it, but she was playing a close game, making us wait and sweat it out. It didn't look good, though, and the proof of that was in how the Goddess Help Line was choosing to play it. Rather than assure Keiichi they were getting you back, they started sending "replacements."_

Urd turned as she heard her door open and close and blinked at the sight that met her. Keiichi, a thoroughly pissed off look on his face, stormed past her toward her armoire, grumbling as he went by.

"I'm not here!" he told her.

Climbing into the cabinet, he pull the door closed behind him. A moment later, someone knocked at her door. Rising from her workbench, the Norn opened her door and found the green-haired goddess who had been living with them for only two days standing there.

"Excuse me," she said quickly, obviously embarrassed by what she perceived as a failure on her part. "But I seem to have lost track of Keiichi sama. Have you seen him?"

The best part about being a goddess second class rather than a goddess first class, is that a second class goddess can lie with a straight face and not feel one iota of guilt over it.

"Sorry, Karisuma," she said. "Haven't seen him all day."

"Drat!" the young Help Line worker swore. "I was hoping to take his mind off his troubles today. The poor man needs comfort right now." She sighed. "If you do see him, will you let me know?"

"Sure!" Urd replied with a smile. "You betcha!"

"Thank you, Urd san." Without another word, she turned and started down the hall to continue her search.

Urd closed the door and addressed her armoire. "You can come out now. She's gone."

"Thank God!" Keiichi muttered as he emerged.

"You okay?" the goddess asked him. Urd liked to think she knew Keiichi pretty well, so it didn't surprise her that Keiichi _seemed_ to be taking Belldandy's disappearance well, but she also knew it was a front, that the strength he had been projecting for two weeks would eventually ebb away. She hoped they found Belldandy before that happened.

He sighed. "I'm trying, Urd, I really am," he said. "But I think if they put half as much effort into actually _finding_ Belldandy as they did trying to find a goddess to replace her, she'd probably be back by now."

The Norn shrugged. "They have to grant your wish. It's in your contract. A goddess _like_ Belldandy must _always_ be by your side. They'll keep throwing goddesses at you until they find one acceptable to you or until Belldandy comes back. No way around it."

"She's the third one, Urd," he told her pointedly. "I don't want another goddess. I want Belldandy, and they insist on treating this whole thing as if my bike got stolen and now they're on the hook for replacing it. I mean she's _Belldandy!_"

"I know," she said softly. "She's my sister, remember?"

"What does Hild even want, anyway?" he asked in frustration. "Can't we just give it to her? What could she possibly want that's that bad?"

Urd offered him a wry smile. "Dominion over all of Creation."

Keiichi paused. "Well... okay, that's pretty bad..."

The goddess shrugged.

The boy decided to steer the subject in another direction. "Anything yet?"

"One or two leads," she replied. She regarded the young mortal for a moment. "Keiichi, we have to be very careful here. Hild's no slouch. She wouldn't seal Belldandy without a plan for keeping her there."

"We've beaten her before," Keiichi told her quietly.

"_Belldandy_ has beaten her before," Urd corrected. "And before the rules weren't on her side."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Keiichi, you have to remember that things between goddesses and demons work a certain way," she told him. "A god or demon on Earth is considered fair game for sealing. As long as Hild doesn't kill or torture her needlessly... the Almighty could simply shrug this one off."

"I don't believe that," he whispered. "Not her."

She offered him a sympathetic look. "But hey, all we need is a good plan. I'm working on it, all right. Just try to avoid Karisuma for awhile and..."

"I'm sending her back," he said. "I tried being nice, I tried being patient, but this constant... hovering... is killing me."

"Oh, come on! She's not that bad!" Urd told him.

He bit his lip. "You want to know what it really is?" he asked. At her nod, he continued. "It's her constant trying to one-up Belldandy."

"Oh, Keiichi, come on..."

"I'm serious," he went on. "Everything she does is followed by a 'Did Belldandy san ever do this for you?' or 'Now, isn't this better than before?'" He shook his head. "It's pissing me off, Urd."

She sighed. "I think she's just self-concious. Belldandy's a hard act to follow."

He started for the door, his mind made up. "Well, either way, I'm sick of it," he said. "If they can't help us get Belldandy back, I wish they'd just leave me alone."

The goddess watched him storm out and sighed.

888

"No, no, no!" Keiichi cried in frustration. "You're not getting it at all, are you? I don't want another goddess. I don't want you to send a 'stand-in' or whatever you want to call it. It's okay to leave me alone until we get Belldandy back, all right? You want me to sign a waiver or something?"

Sitting across from him at the kitchen table, an older goddess with long blonde hair sipped at her tea cup as she sculpted her response. The head of the Goddess Help Line was a patient woman. One had to be to succeed in such a line of work, but this Keiichi mortal frustrated her. Nothing but Belldandy was good enough, and he refused to acknowledge that there were forces at work greater than them both. Freya was sympathetic, of course. Belldandy was like a niece to her, but she was starting to think a cold case of reality was in store.

"Morisato san," she began smoothly as she lowered the tea cup. "I sympathize with your situation, but you have to understand that in this case, it's not up to me. Despite what you think, your wish does not require _Belldandy_, only a goddess _like_ Belldandy. I am bound by the System Force to provide you the letter of your wish, not the spirit. You may think that your wording meant that Belldandy alone must remain with you, but that is not the case, and if we don't assign a goddess to pick up your contract soon, the System Force is going to force the issue. _It_ will choose a goddess 'like' Belldandy and manipulate time and space to drive them down here and force them to remain. If you think the volunteers I've sent here have been difficult to adjust to, imagine what it would be like to live with a goddess with no interest whatsoever in having anything to do with you."

"It's a waste of time," he sighed. "When we free Belldandy..."

"Morisato san," Freya interrupted, "I think you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that that isn't going to happen for quite some time. Seals can remain in place for five hundred years, and Hild appears to be in no hurry. We are negotiating with her to the best of our ability, but so far it appears that the only thing she wants is for Belldandy remain sealed. If that's the case, there's nothing we can do."

"You're just going to leave her there?!"

"We do the same to them," Freya explained. "Belldandy, herself, has sealed demons for hundreds of years. They do their time, they're released, and the cycle starts all over again."

Faced with this cold statement, Keiichi took a breath and looked down at the table.

"Even if Hild only requires that she remain sealed for a tenth of the maximum, by the time Belldandy was released, you'd be over seventy years old," Freya told him, sympathy entering her voice for the first time. "I know you two were close..."

"_Are_ close," he corrected.

"_Are_ close," she amended. "But the time may come... sooner than you think... when you're going to have to decide whether or not a faint hope is worth giving up a large portion of your lifetime."

His eyes found hers. "And in the meantime, you're going to keep sending goddesses down here to smile at me, assure me that everything is all right and that I shouldn't worry my pretty little head about things?" he asked bitterly.

Freya didn't break his gaze. "Quite."

Watching the back and forth from her position by the kitchen sink, Urd thought Keiichi was going to leap over the table at Freya at any moment. They had sent two more goddesses after Keiichi sent Karisuma home. Neither of them lasted more than two days. Keiichi's stress level was through the roof, and she knew for a fact he hadn't been sleeping.

She knew this was tough for both of them. Freya, quite literally, could not stop sending goddesses to fulfill Keiichi's contract. She didn't have a choice in the matter. The way Keiichi had worded his wish demanded that a goddess be there. And likewise Keiichi knew that if he allowed that to happen, it would be a betrayal of Belldandy. He would have "replaced" the only woman he had ever really loved as easily as if he bought a new shirt at Old Navy. In the meantime, the anguish of her disappearance was eating him alive.

She decided to turn the question on its head, approach it from a different angle. They knew what Freya wanted. They knew what Keiichi wanted. What would Belldandy want?

Obviously, she would want Keiichi to have his wish, but more than that, she wouldn't want Keiichi to suffer needlessly. Freya getting her way made him suffer. Continuing the stalemate made him suffer. The only way to satisfy both was to appoint a caretaker for the wish who would meet the bare requirements but would fall far short of the bar Belldandy had set. Someone to check the box but not be a threat to Keiichi and Belldandy's relationship.

Peorth?

Belldandy would kill her twenty minutes after breaking seal.

The answer hit her, and she took a breath. It was so stupid, so crazy, so blatantly inappropriate on every level... that it just might work...

Just long enough to save Belldandy.

"Okay, how about this?" the Norn interjected, breaking the glaring contest the goddess and mortal were having. "I'll do it."

Freya blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"

Keiichi threw her an irate look. "Not... funny," he told her.

"I'm serious," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "It makes perfect sense. Keiichi doesn't want a strange goddess screwing up his life. Well, I'm already here, and I'm not planning on leaving until we've recovered Belldandy. Freya gets to tell the System Force that Keiichi's wish is being granted, and Keiichi gets what he _currently_ wants, which is for no more new goddesses barging into his life."

"Absolutely not," Freya told her pointedly. "You are nowhere near qualified for this."

Urd grit her teeth. "Not qualified?"

Freya locked eyes with the Norn. "Granting a wish is a solemn responsibility, not done merely to check a box on a list."

"A minute ago you were talking about a random goddesses being forced here against her will!" Urd bit out. "Now you're saying that would be preferable to me?!"

Freya didn't answer. She turned back to Keiichi. "Morisato san, the goddess who takes on this responsibility should be a goddess of good character and upbringing..."

"Hey!" Urd cried at the insult.

"The volunteers we've sent up until now we have screened thoroughly," Freya went on.

Keiichi looked at both of them. "You really hate this idea?" he asked Freya.

"I do."

"Then that settles it for me," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'll take Urd."

Both goddesses looked stunned for a moment. Freya furrowed her eyebrows. "Morisato san, believe me, what you want is a goddess who..."

"What I want," he cut her off, "is a goddess at my side who loves Belldandy as much as I do. And you don't have a volunteer like that."

Freya looked from him to Urd, who smirked at her. The elder goddess took a breath and rose from her seat. "As you wish. I'll make the arrangements for a transfer of the contract. Once the transfer is complete, however, it will be upheld by the System Force." She turned to Urd. "I need to speak with you privately, go over a few things."

"Sure," Urd said with a shrug. She led the other goddess into her room, leaving Keiichi alone at the table to contemplate things.

Once Freya was sure they were out of earshot, she addressed the Norn. "You don't really understand what it is you've asked for here," she told her.

"It's only temporary," Urd said. "When Belldandy comes back..."

"You don't understand," Freya interrupted. "You've been down here for so long, you've forgotten how different time flows for us in relation to them. You've forgotten that a day in Heaven can be days or weeks down here. Assuming that the negotiations go as well as they possibly could, you're going to be at that boy's side for a minimum of five years, and I would guess it'll end up closer to twenty. For a goddess that's a warm bath and supper, but for that young man you're talking about a good percentage of his lifetime. I wanted to pair him with a goddess he could eventually fall in love with because that, Urd, was the true meaning of his wish."

Urd said nothing, trying to digest what the goddess was telling her and not liking it one bit.

"I fear you may find the responsibility you've taken on to be much more than you're able to provide," Freya went on.

888

It rained that night, the first hard rain Nekomi had had in months. Thunder rumbled over the city as black and grey clouds flew across the sky, driven by 30 mile-per-hour winds.

After her conversation with Freya, Urd wanted time to think. She stayed in her room and didn't come out again. If someone would have asked if she was avoiding Keiichi, she'd laugh it off, but quietly, in her own mind, she knew there was truth to it. She was already having second thoughts about her plan, a plan that seemed to make so much sense when she came up with it. Now...

She had given up trying to make sense of herself one way or the other and went to bed early. As lightning came in through the window, she tossed and turned in her futon.

_Neesan..._

The goddess tossed again, and the sigil on her forehead started to shed a subdued blue light.

_Neesan..._

She opened her eyes and found herself floating, surrounded by a white, ethereal nothingness. Floating nearby, still in the same blue dress she was wearing when she left that day, was her sister.

"Belldandy?!"

The younger Norn opened her eyes and looked at her sadly. "Neesan, is Keiichi san okay?"

"Yeah," Urd reassured her. "Yeah, he's fine. Where are you?"

"Sealed," Belldandy told her sadly. "I'm worried about Keiichi san. I'm supposed to be there for him."

"Don't worry about that," Urd told her. "We're going to get you out of there. We just need some time, that's all."

"But who's taking care of Keiichi san?"

"Keiichi's going to be fine," she replied. "I'm going to look after him for you until you get back."

Belldandy bit her lip. "Neesan, are you sure that's a good idea?"

Urd blinked. "Look, Sis, it's just to keep Freya off his back until we get you home, that's all."

"And what if it doesn't happen that quickly?" Belldandy asked her. "Are you going to look after him for twenty, thirty, fifty years?"

The older goddess didn't reply. Belldandy went on.

"Neesan, I don't mean to sound cruel, but..." She bit her lip, trying to find a good way to explain it. "... but there have been times in your life when you've simply lost interest, when something you tried to continue over the long-term simply stopped being interesting to you..."

"Belldandy..." Urd tried, "This is just short-term..."

"And what if it's not?" Belldandy asked. "What if Hild doesn't let me out? Are you going to..."

"What?" Urd demanded sadly. "Am I going to what?"

The goddess found her older sister's gaze and held it. "Are you going to abandon him when it starts getting tough?"

888

Keiichi walked down the hall toward the kitchen, letting out a long yawn in the process. His slippers made virtually no sound as he stepped drowsily in search of a glass of water. As he passed Urd's door, he heard something from behind the simple door and stopped.

Uncertainly, he leaned in and listened. There it was again, the sound of someone moving around, almost in a panic. He knocked gently. "Urd? You okay?" Receiving no answer, he quietly slid the door open and looked in.

He found Urd thrashing on her futon, her forehead glowing.

"Urd?!" The boy rushed forward and took her by the shoulders. "Urd! Wake up! Snap out of it!"

The sigil glowed brighter.

888

"I'm doing this for you!" Urd cried at her sister. "You know what Freya wanted?! She wanted to hook Keiichi up with another goddess! Replace you with one of those dimwitted goddesses who work in the back office!"

"Freya sama wants Keiichi to be happy," Belldandy told her. "And so do I. Neesan, I don't question your motivations." The goddess turned sad. "But I can't rest here unless I can be sure of Keiichi's happiness. And I can't be sure unless I know... that you're going to make the effort. That for once in your life, you're going to finish what you've started."

"Then what do you want me to do?!" Urd demanded from her. "Since you and Freya don't seem to have any faith in me filling in for you, what do you want from me?!" She saw Belldandy's hurt expression at the accusation-filled question, but continued to press. "Give up and go home?! Leave him here!? TELL ME WHAT TO DO, SIS!"

Belldandy floated toward her and embraced her, tears in her eyes. "Don't abandon him," she said. "That's all I want. I know the future will be difficult. I know there will be hard times, but please don't leave him. Watch over him. Protect him. Care for him. Just please don't leave him."

Urd hugged her, tears welling up in her own eyes. "I promise. I'm going to take care of him for you. I promise."

888

"Urd! Come on! Wake up!" Keiichi cried, noting the sigil growing brighter. Suddenly, there was a crack of thunder, a flash outside, and something hit Keiichi so hard, he flew across the room and blacked out.

The goddess lay on the other side of the room, as the sigil on her forehead began to darken.

The contract was sealed.


	2. Stuck on You

Disclaimer: AMG is not mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 2**

**Stuck on You**

Belldandy watched her sister sit down across from her, but the elder Norn wouldn't meet her eyes. Instead, she gazed off to the side, her expression sad.

"I didn't contact you, Neesan," Belldandy told her. "I don't know who you were talking to in that dream, but it wasn't me."

For the first time since she began her story, Urd smiled. "I know. And he knew too." She looked up and met her sister's eyes. "I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Not until the next morning when the System Force made it clear."

"The System Force?" Belldandy asked.

"The contract was uploaded and sealed during the night," Urd explained. "And it seemed to us that the System Force, after what happened to you, wasn't going to take any chances."

_**Ten years ago...**_

Urd opened her eyes and let out a soft groan. She'd slept awfully, and that dream...

She sighed. She should have expected Belldandy to react that way. Her younger sister was right, after all. Who was she to think she could hold a candle to Belldandy?

_It doesn't matter,_ she told herself. _A few weeks, tops._

It was as she was reassuring herself of this that she looked up and saw a familiar, pajama-clad figure lying not far away.

"Keiichi?" she asked. She supposed the lady-like thing to do at this point would be to cover herself and screech, wearing only a black camisole, but the Norn's philosophy had always been "if you don't want men to see it, cover it up."

She crawled over to him and shook his shoulder.

"Oi," she called. "Wake up."

The boy's eyes fluttered open and caught sight of her. This act somehow propelled him across the room into a corner.

"Urd! Jeez! I didn't mean to... um..."

She grinned slyly. "Oh? You sneak into my room in the dead of night to... what, exactly?"

The embarrassed expression evaporated, leaving only mirthless ire. "Jeez, Urd," he muttered.

"Relax, Keiichi," she said, rising to her feet. "But just so I know what to tell Belldandy when she gets back..." She smiled for his benefit. "Maybe you could tell me what _did_ bring you here?"

The boy rubbed his eyes and stood up. "I heard you tossing and turning last night. I came to check on you, and the... symbol... thingie... on your head was glowing."

She blinked. "It was?"

"Yeah," he replied with a nod. "Then there was a flash and the next thing I know you're waking me up."

She put her finger to her lip in thought. "Sounds like they amended the contract and downloaded it." The goddess sighed. "Well, sounds like it's official, then. That should keep the goddess squad off our backs. All we have to do is get Belldandy back."

Relaxing a little, Keiichi took a breath. "Yeah. No sweat, right?"

"But before then and while you're making breakfast, I'd like to get dressed," she hinted with a smile.

His eyebrow twitched. "Coco Puffs it is," he sighed, starting for the door.

As he walked past, Urd went to her dresser. She turned back a moment later at the sound of metallic clicks behind her. Keiichi was pulling at the door with no effect.

"I think your lock's broken," he said.

"You might have to jiggle it a little," she said, stepping toward him. Just as she came up alongside him, the door suddenly slid open.

"Got it," he said.

She turned and started for her dresser. As Keiichi took a step into the hall, there was a sudden crash, and he cried out.

"Keiichi!" she cried, turning to the sound.

The mortal boy stood just inside the room. Out in the hall, a ceiling support had fallen diagonally across the door, blocking it.

"That... was... close," he breathed. "That storm must have been bad."

She stepped toward him to help him push the support out of the way, but as she came abreast of him, the beam suddenly fell the rest of the way to the floor, clearing the path.

They both stood there a moment, blinking.

"Okay, that was a little weird," he noted. He started for the door, but Urd put a hand on his shoulder.

"Just a sec," she said. "Stand perfectly still." With that warning, she stepped across the room away from him and started waving to him. "Bye bye, Keiichi!" she cried.

At that moment, the rest of the ceiling just outside the door collapsed in, blocking the door with a pile of wood and drywall.

Keiichi stood there, shaking. If he had taken a step out...

He turned and found Urd glaring accusingly at the doorway. "Well, this complicates matters," she muttered.

"What is it?" he demanded.

"It's the System Force," she said. "It's trying to keep us in the same room."

"Taking it a little far, don't you think?" he asked. "I mean, it was pretty annoying for me and Belldandy at first, but it never tried to kill us."

"I don't think that's what it's doing now," she told him. "But it's definitely taken a sharp lurch toward the aggressive."

"Why?" he asked, puzzled. "I mean... if it wasn't like this for Belldandy, then why..."

"The System Force is tricky, Keiichi," she said, opening her dresser and taking out a pair of panties and a bra. Seeing her do this, Keiichi cleared his throat and turned away, giving her some privacy as she explained her theory. "It was supposed to keep you and Belldandy together, but it failed. It may be taking things a bit more seriously now."

He stared at the debris as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. "Are you saying the System Force _feels bad_ about Belldandy getting sealed so it's overreacting now?"

"Maybe," she allowed with a sigh as she put on a purple blouse and buttoned it up. "Or maybe the Almighty One instructed it to be this way. Who knows? Well... maybe Freya knows, but for us that's the same thing..."

"Great," he muttered. "So what do we do? We can't stay in the same room _all_ the time. I mean... well... eventually things are going to get awkward..."

"We'll figure something out," she replied, placing a hand on his shoulder and letting him know it was okay to turn around. "Come on. Let's go to your room so you can get dressed and then get some Coco Puffs."

As they both approached the door, some of the debris slid aside, giving them a small hole to move through. The two walked down the hall toward Keiichi's room, making sure that they didn't allow more than a foot of space between them. Once there, Keiichi dressed while Urd stared out the window.

Finally ready to face the day, Keiichi led Urd toward the kitchen, giving a mournful sigh as he passed the living room. In the two weeks Belldandy had been gone, the usually immaculate sitting room had become disheveled. He vowed to clean it up today. He didn't want Belldandy coming home to a filthy house.

They found Skuld already at the table, munching on the last of the cereal.

"You could have saved some," Urd told her.

"Sure could have," Skuld sullenly quipped as she ate another spoonful, not even bothering to look at her sister or Keiichi.

Keiichi bit the inside of his cheek at the exchange. Skuld had seemed off lately, more withdrawn. At first, she had vowed to find Belldandy and release her from her seal, working on some invention in her lab, but as the days went by without even a word on how to even _get_ to Hild, her enthusiasm had ebbed. He added talking to her to his list of things to do today.

If Urd had noticed Skuld's change in behavior, she made no sign. The older goddess was rooting through the cabinets, trying to find something that could pass as breakfast. Finally, the Norn gave up and closed the cabinets.

"Great," she muttered. "We're out of everything. Even that moldy cheese Gan chan's been eating is long gone."

"Belldandy handled the shopping," Keiichi sighed.

Urd clenched her fist. "One more good reason to get her back as soon as possible." She sighed again. "I guess we're going to have to go shopping."

"Is that a good idea?" Keiichi asked. "Going out, I mean? With the System Force and all?"

Skuld looked up and blinked at him. "What's the System Force got against you?"

Keiichi gave her a brief rundown on the events of the previous day and Urd's theory about the System Force.

The young goddess's expression went from mildly interested to disapprovingly suspicious. "I see," she said. "How convenient..."

"Convenient?" Keiichi asked.

Skuld turned her angry visage away from him. "Oneesama is sealed away and you go and get yourself a brand new goddess to take her place, huh? It must be nice..."

"What are you talking about?!" Keiichi demanded angrily. "We didn't have a choice! It was this or some other goddess!"

"Yeah, but at least Karisuma could cook," Skuld noted pointedly.

Urd turned to her, annoyed by her sister's comments. "Do we have a problem, Skuld?!"

Skuld glared at her. "I guess not. Have fun together." She stood up and started for the hall. "I'm going back to my lab."

The older goddess glared at her, but Keiichi decided to try to break the tension. "What are you building in there, anyway?" he asked.

The raven-haired girl stopped short, but didn't turn to them. "A machine," she said. "Something to save Oneesama with. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to it."

Without another word to them, she stalked down the hall.

"What in the name of Hild's left tit is her problem?!" Urd cried.

Keiichi continued to look sadly down the hall. "The same problem we all have," he told her quietly. "Belldandy's gone."

888

Keiichi grabbed his jacket and his keys and led Urd toward the front door.

"No choice," he said. "We're going to have to brave the supermarket."

"That's the big place with the food, right?" Urd asked.

Not one hundred percent sure she was joking, Keiichi sighed. "Yes, Urd. That's the big place with the food."

"Great, I wrote a list," she said, handing him a torn envelope.

He read over it. "This is just a list of liquor brands," he pointed out.

"Yes," she replied with a nod. "Yes, it is."

The boy sighed again. "We kind of have a cash situation, Urd," he said. "You're going to have to cut back..."

"Woah, woah, woah!" she responded, holding her hands up. "That wasn't part of the deal, Morisato!"

He pulled the door open. "Yeah, well..." He broke off as he turned and saw Megumi standing there, her hand poised to knock. "Megumi!"

"Hey, big brother," she said. "Just wanted to drop by and turn you onto something." The girl stepped inside and shrugged her jacket off. "You guys heading out?"

"Just to the store," Urd told her.

"Okay, check this out," Megumi said, looking quickly down the hall.

"What are you looking for?" Urd asked.

"Belldandy," she replied. "This would be an awesome way to surprise her. I have tickets to one of those midnight harbor dinner cruises. You need to totally ask Be..."

Keiichi bit his lip and turned sad. For the past two weeks, they had been telling people that Belldandy was out on errands. Now...

"Megumi..."

"No, it's cool. I fixed old man Mizuhara's tow truck for them, and it's not like I have a boyfriend or..."

"Belldandy's gone," he interrupted.

She looked at him in puzzlement. As if someone had just told her elves were responsible for making the cookies she liked. "Huh?"

"She's gone," he repeated. "I don't know when she's going to be back."

"You mean she's out of town? That's cool. These tickets are good for six months..."

"Megumi..."

"Where is she, anyway?" Megumi asked.

Keiichi took a breath, his chest constricting as he tried to come up with a lie that was believable enough to work without getting emotional about the truth. "She's... um..."

"She's overseas," Urd butted in. "It's... well... it's complicated. She might be going to a foreign school."

"Like an exchange program?" Megumi asked.

"Exactly," Urd lied her ass off.

"Well... that's cool. You say she _might_ be going?"

"Yeah," Urd went on as Keiichi turned away for a moment to compose himself. The goddess threw him a quick look to check on him before addressing Megumi again. "She has to take the entrance exams and do an interview."

"Wow," Megumi said without the kind of enthusiasm one might expect. "Where?"

"Amsterdam," Urd said at the exact same moment Keiichi said, "California."

Megumi arched an eyebrow.

"Amsterdam, California!" Urd recovered quickly. "It's north of... um... Chicago..."

"Ah," Megumi said. She eyed her brother warily. "So... does that mean you're moving too?" she asked tentatively.

"No," he said, forcing a smile. "No, I'm going to be staying."

"Oh, Kei chan, I'm so sorry," Megumi told him, reaching out and squeezing his arm.

"Yeah, but she'll be back," Urd said, trying to put a happy spin on things.

Megumi gave her a knowing look, and the goddess knew what she wanted to say. _A long distance relationship? Please..._

"So when would she leave?" Megumi asked aloud instead.

Keiichi decided to just take the lie and run with it. "She wouldn't be back if they accept her," he said simply.

"Well," Megumi said sympathetically, "I know this sounds wrong to say, but I really hope she fails."

"Somehow, I don't think she will," Keiichi told her.

"In that case," she said, "Do you still want these tickets? I can't think of anyone else who might want them..."

"No," he said tiredly. "Sorry, Megumi, but I can't think of anyone. Maybe Otaki senpai..."

She nodded. "Okay, I'll give him a shot."

Feeling the awkwardness level in the room go up, Megumi told her brother to hang in there and then excused herself. Keiichi stood at the door for several minutes, looking at the doorhandle.

"You okay?" Urd asked.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "Yeah, I'm good." He gave her a quick glance. "Nice save on that college thing."

She shrugged. "What can I say? Lying comes naturally to me."

He sighed but smiled just a little. "At least you're using your super powers for good instead of evil."

She grinned. "Most of the time, Keiichi." The goddess winked. "Most of the time."

888

"Okay," Keiichi said, grabbing a basket at the entrance of the supermarket. "Just the essen..." He broke off as he heard the clinking of glass and felt the basket get heavier. Looking down, he found two bottles of sake and a pint of tequila sitting in the red basket. "These aren't essentials," he noted dryly.

"According to who?" Urd asked, checking off items on her list.

"Look, Urd, I don't get paid until the end of the week, and I can't go to work today because of this whole System Force thing, so humor me, okay?"

"Okay, okay," she said, taking out the bottle of tequila. "Only what's needed to survive. How's that?"

He sighed.

"C'mon, Keiichi," she said, with a smile. "I'll even share it with you."

"Whipee," he commented without a touch of enthusiasm.

The two wandered down the aisles, repeating the process entailing Urd putting something in the basket and Keiichi taking it out again, but it was all done in silence. After awhile, the hush started to make Urd uncomfortable.

"Ne," she said. "What is it?"

Keiichi paused. "I'm just worried about her, you know?" he replied. His hand came to rest on a box of noodles. "Urd... does it hurt when you're sealed? I mean... is she... is she in any pain?"

"Well," she said quietly, "In that, at least, you can rest easy. It's kind of like getting knocked out. When she is released, she'll be a little dizzy and disoriented and then go right back to being herself."

He regarded her carefully. "You sound like you speak from experience," he said.

The goddess shrugged and smiled sardonically. "I once did a nickel in an oil lamp," she said. "It's not bad. It's... It's like falling asleep when you don't mean to and waking up knowing you forgot to do something. It's the losing time that sucks the worst."

Keiichi looked down at the floor. "But it's easier for you in a way," he said. "I mean... you don't really age, do you?"

She bit her lip. "Yeah, I guess you and her are a special case," she allowed. "We do 'age,' it's just not as obvious. It's changes in your perspective, your bearing. You can kind of see it in a goddess's eyes.

"Do you dream?" he asked.

The vision, the conversation she had with her sister the night before came screaming back to her.

"Sometimes," she said quietly. She saw the look in his eyes and decided to try to put his mind at ease. "When I was in that lamp, I had this dream where I was sitting on a beach where the sun was always setting. And you know what was really weird?"

He shook his head.

"It was weird because I should have gotten bored five minutes into it and started looking for something to do, but instead, I just sat there and watched it for five years." She chuckled. "There wasn't even any sake."

"So... you think that's where Belldandy is?" he asked. "Sitting on a beach somewhere?"

"Probably not," she replied with a shrug. "She's probably having some kind of Belldandy-ish dream where she's waiting for the dryer to buzz."

"Yeah, I guess so," he allowed. He decided to change the subject. "You mentioned a lead..."

"Yeah," she said, remembering their conversation from yesterday. "Here's the trick, we have to actually get Hild to come here. I think I know a way to summon her without her realizing it's us, but before we do that, we have another problem."

"Which is?"

"What are we going to do when she _gets_ here?" she asked. "Right now it's just you, me and Skuld. We need some muscle or she's just going to laugh at us and take off again."

He sighed. "Maybe Skuld was right," the boy admitted quietly. "Maybe we should have kept Karisuma around."

Urd rolled her eyes. "Keiichi, Karisuma wasn't here to help us get Belldandy back. Trust me, we're better off without her. But we _are_ going to need help."

"Peorth?"

He saw her face pinch and gave her a questioning look.

"Look, I've got nothing against Peorth," she began, "But we might only get one shot at this. I'd prefer someone who isn't quite so... flaky."

"Lind?"

She shook her head. "Lind can't do freelance work. She only works for the Almighty."

"Then who?"

"I don't know yet," she said, biting her lip. "Give me a little time to work on it. It probably will be Peorth. All the same... let's just wait and see."

888

As the two entered the house, their arms laden with bags, Keiichi could hear the sound of the TV on in the next room. Resting the bags on the kitchen counter, he stepped toward the doorframe and found Skuld sitting in front of the television, a bowl of ice cream in her hand.

"Hey," he said casually. He wasn't sure how to deal with Skuld. She was obviously taking Belldandy's disappearance very hard, and unfortunately her preconceived hostility toward him didn't give him much room to work in with her. "Taking a break?"

Her eyes shot to him. "Break?"

"Yeah," he said. "From your invention. The machine to rescue Belldandy," he prompted.

She shot to her feet, leaving the bowl of ice cream on the floor. "Jeez, I'm working on it, okay!?" she said.

"I didn't mean it like that," he said cautiously. "I know you're working hard..."

"Butt out, Keiichi!" she said as she stormed back to her room.

He sighed. Urd came up behind him. "Is she still being a pill?" the goddess asked.

"Yeah," he said.

Urd checked her watch. "Okay, you're not going to like this..."

"What?" he asked, blinking.

"I need to take a bath," she said.

He turned red. "So skip it," he told her.

She sighed. "I can't. A goddess has to purify once a day."

He blinked, and his face pinched. She was right. Belldandy had told him as much when she had accidentally gotten their hands stuck together.

"Well, look... I mean..."

The goddess sighed again and pointed a glare in his direction. "Okay, Keiichi, look, if this is going to continue, we're going to have to have a few ground rules."

"_You_ are advocating ground rules?" he asked, his arms folded over his chest.

"Yes," she said. "Look, under the circumstances, we're going to have to admit that things can't go on as they did before, right?"

He nodded. "I'll buy that."

"Okay, so let's start with this: You're not a pervert, and I'm not a voyeuristic tramp. I don't tease you about peeking and you don't assume I'm putting on a show. How about that for Rule Number One?"

The boy gulped. "Um... okay..."

She grinned. "Good."

"Rule Two," he said suddenly. "We're both going to have to take over some of the things Belldandy did. That means one of us is going to have to cook, and the other is going to have to clean. I'll let you pick."

"Then I pick the third option: watch TV and drink," she responded darkly.

"That's not an option."

"Then it's not a rule," she said. "Remember, I'm doing this for you. That doesn't mean I become a live-in maid."

The two stared at one another, neither willing to give ground on this.

"It's not like that," he argued.

"Oh, I bet it's not," she said, starting for the bathroom. Keiichi stepped up to follow her. "You got used to having a domestic goddess around the house, cooking and cleaning your clothes."

"And so did you," he said, watching her twitch. "I don't recall ever seeing you turn down a meal Belldandy made."

She grumbled.

"It has nothing to do with the wish," he said. "It's a matter of everyone in this house pitching in a little."

"And what's Skuld going to pitch in?" she asked petulantly.

He rubbed his temples. "We need someone to throw bombs at me and build weapons of mass destruction," he snarked.

"Fine! I'll do that, and _she_ can clean!"

He stopped walking, and it took Urd a moment to realize it. Turning, she blinked. "Well?" she asked.

"Well what?" he replied.

"Oh, I see how this is going to be," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "You're going to hold my bath hostage, huh?"

"Don't see why I shouldn't," he said. "After all, it looks like I'm the one who's going to have to wash the bathroom."

She growled.

Suddenly, the door between them opened, and Skuld poked her head out. "Hey! Veronica and Jughead! Shut up! I'm trying to work in here!" She turned to Urd. "You get off your butt and do some chores! And you..." She turned to Keiichi. "Just let the woman take her bath!"

The door slammed shut.

The two were silent for a moment.

"Wisdom from the mouths of babes, huh?" Urd quipped with a sigh.

The door shot open again. "And don't call me a kid!"

It shut again.

888

He sat down on the bathroom floor, his back to the tub as he heard the water moving to accept Urd's presence. The boy studied the wood panel wall as the goddess soaked behind him.

They sat in silence, and Keiichi mulled on their earlier conversation. Finally, he worked up some nerve and spoke up.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Maybe being with Belldandy has spoiled me a little..."

He heard the water stop moving. "No," Urd said with a hint of a grumble. "We've all been spoiled. And I guess..." She trailed off and said nothing.

"What?" he pressed, holding back the urge to look over his shoulder to try to divine her expression.

The water splashed a bit. "I guess... Look, Keiichi, I'm never going to be Belldandy. I'm nothing like my sister. I don't want you thinking you got a raw deal just because I'm different."

He stifled a chuckle. "Trust me, Urd, I'd never dare think of you as anything like Belldandy."

The water went still. "What do you mean?"

There was something in the tone, the way the question was asked.

The boy cleared his throat. "Nothing, it's just that... well... you're nothing like her..."

Silence.

Keiichi started to turn but caught himself. "What is it?" he asked in concern.

"It's nothing," she said.

He sighed. It took him two years to begin to understand Belldandy. He wondered how long it would take to figure out Urd. He decided to change the subject.

"How long do you think the System Force is going to take this so personally?" he asked.

Again he felt like he had said something wrong. "What?" he asked. "What is it?"

He heard the water moving. "I think I know why it's being this way," she said.

"Oh?" he said, determined to move very carefully through the verbal minefield from here on out.

"Yeah," she said carefully. "It's me."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"It doesn't have any faith in me," she said sadly. "It thinks I'm going to run."

"What?" he cried, incredulous.

He could almost see her nod. "Freya said she was concerned about whether or not I could do this for the long haul, and last night..." She broke off again.

"Last night?"

She took a breath. "Last night... I talked to Belldandy."

"What?!" he gasped. "How!? Where?!"

"She came to me in a dream," she said. "She asked about you, and I told her I was taking over the contract."

He said nothing, too shocked to speak.

"She... was less than enthused about the idea," Urd went on. "She suggested I might just up and abandon you if things got tough."

Keiichi felt his heartbeat slow a little. He smiled sadly and spoke.

"You didn't talk to Belldandy," he said simply.

The water splashed in indignation. "I think I would know, Keiichi."

"So would I, but you didn't speak to Belldandy last night," he repeated. "I know Belldandy. And Belldandy wouldn't say anything like that. No, scratch that," he suddenly said. "She wouldn't even _think_ anything like that."

The water was still as Keiichi went on.

"Look, I admit, in the past you've done things that make people think you're less than dependable, but you know who's always defended you? Belldandy. If she really knew what you had done, taking over her contract for her, she'd be relieved... I think she'd be proud of you."

"Keiichi..."

"She has faith in you, Urd," he said solemnly. "And so do I."

He heard her clear her throat. "Um... thanks, Keiichi," she said quietly.

"You know what I think?" he asked. "I think the System Force is picking up on your thoughts on this. Maybe if you just accept what Belldandy and I think on this, it'll back off. So you're just going to have to accept it, okay?"

She let out a chuckle.

"Oh," he added. "And you have to do some of the chores," he added.

She let out a laugh. "Okay! You win!"

He heard the water splash as she stood up. "Come on. It's your turn."

888

Keiichi sat up and yawned, looking over at the digital alarm clock near the futon. In the futon on the other side of the room, Urd was snoring. It was three-thirty in the morning. Scratching himself absently, the drowsy mortal opened the bedroom door and stepped outside.

He was halfway to the bathroom when he finally woke up enough to realize what he had done. Keiichi cried out and quickly dived to the floor, his hands over his head in anticipation of the System Force's revenge.

Nothing.

Opening one eye, he cautiously looked out to find nothing. He rose to his knees, still unsure.

"Keiichi?"

Turning, he saw Urd poking her head out of his room.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The house is intact," he said with an air of incredulity.

Urd looked warily up at the ceiling. "Huh," she noted. "Maybe you were onto something after all."

He looked back at her and blinked. "What?"

She smiled at him. "I think we're going to be okay." The goddess started down the hall. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to my room for a proper night's sleep." She waved. "I'll see you tomorrow around... oh... two or three..."

Keiichi watched her go and smiled. "Yeah," he called back. He grinned. "Just don't forget to clean the bathroom."

"Not funny!" she called back.

He heard the door close, and he took a breath. "We're going to be okay."


	3. Yamato Nadeshiko

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 3**

**Yamato Nadeshiko**

"Hungry?"

Belldandy looked up from the table where her eyes had come to rest as she digested her sister's story thus far. The older goddess was looking at her in concern.

"Hai," Belldandy admitted. "A little."

Urd went to the counter and pulled the cover off a cake tray, cutting a slice from the pound cake hidden beneath.

"It sounds like..." Belldandy began tentatively. "It sounds like you and Keiichi san had a rough time at first," she said.

Urd shrugged, turning with a plate and a pair of chopsticks. "We worked through it. We didn't have time to sweat the small stuff. We had bigger things to worry about." She offered the cake to Belldandy, who took it gratefully. "And we had help."

The young goddess blinked. "Help?"

Urd nodded as she sat back down. "I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn't have the same... well... skill sets you did." She chuckled. "To be honest, I felt a little worthless at first. And then... well..."

_**Ten years ago...**_

"I'm sorry, Keiichi, I can't do this anymore," Urd said sadly. "I thought I could. I really wanted to tough it out, but I simply can't do this..."

Keiichi looked at the goddess with sadness and pity as Urd went on.

"I cannot eat one more 'Morisato Ramen Cake,'" she said, holding up an uncooked block of ramen covered with ketchup. "I refuse."

"Hey," he said a touch defensively. "You had the choice. You chose cleaning. That means I cook."

"Yes, but in my defense, no one would call my cleaning a crime against nature," she pointed out.

"My underwear is pink, Urd!" he shot back. "Pink!"

Urd bristled, remembering her impromptu lesson concerning throwing her red bra in with the whites. "The proper, accepted terminology," she bit out, "Is 'light red.'"

"There's already a word for 'light red,'" he growled. "It's 'PINK!'"

The two were sitting in the same kitchen where, three weeks before, Urd had proposed transferring the contract to her. For three weeks, they had done their best to get by without Belldandy, but so far it wasn't working out very well.

Keiichi took a breath. It wasn't Urd's fault. Three years of living with a goddess who had catered to his every domestic need had made him soft. He wouldn't make it living in a dorm room anymore, let alone taking care of an entire temple.

"Can we please just order something out tonight?" Urd begged.

He shook his head with regret. "Our budget is tight enough now that Belldandy isn't bringing in any money," he answered. "I've asked for extra hours, but it still means we have to be careful."

"Ugh," Urd moaned. "So what do we do?"

"I'll go to the library," he said. "Check out a cookbook. Can't promise it'll be any better, though."

The goddess sighed. Why was Keiichi doing the cooking anyway? Wasn't he the one working and going to school?

She knew the answer to that. Because as bad as he was at it, Urd was even worse. She didn't understand how it was possible that a goddess so good at mixing potions and chemicals could screw up the simplest of culinary recipes, but she sure seemed to give it a good run. She was starting to regret not paying closer attention when Belldandy cooked.

Urd was about say something along those lines when a knock came at the door.

"You expecting someone?" Urd asked as she rose to answer it.

"No," he said. "It's probably Megumi, though, making her rounds."

The goddess nodded. Lately the younger Morisato had been visiting at least once every two days to check on Keiichi. Going along with their story about Belldandy going to a foreign school, they had told her she had been accepted on a probationary basis and would not be returning to Nekomi for quite some time.

Urd opened the door and had to shake her head to make sure she was seeing clearly. A blonde woman in a green dress and large, floppy sun hat stood at their door, a leather suitcase at her feet.

"Oh, thank goodness!" the woman cried. "Urd!" She picked up her suitcase and pushed her way inside. "I was so certain I had the wrong address!" Before the Norn could say a word, the woman had removed her sun hat and was slapping it against her leg, the hat visibly shrinking with each strike until it was the size of a ball cap.

"Sif?!" Urd finally cried.

"Sif?" Keiichi asked, confused.

"In_deed_!" the blonde declared with a bright smile. Her eyes locked on Keiichi and she gave him a short curtsey. "You must be _the_ Keiichi Morisato. I've read so much about you in Belldandy's letters." She paused, her finger going to her lip in thought. "Odd," she said. "Somehow I expected you to be taller..."

"Belldandy's letters?" Keiichi asked, feeling very much like a confused parrot at this point.

"Indeed," Sif replied. "She wrote me several times before this current... unpleasantness."

"I'm sorry," Keiichi began. "But who are you?"

"Ah!" Sif said, her hand going to her chest. "I'm so sorry. I'm being quite rude." She produced a small card and handed it to him. "I am the goddess Sif, first-class, commercial license."

"She's a friend of Belldandy's," Urd explained. "You could say she's her BFF."

"Oh!" Keiichi said. "I see! It's nice to meet you, Sif!"

"But what are you doing here?" Urd asked with a tinge of suspicion.

Sif turned to her and smiled. "I was out on a contract when I heard about what happened to Belldandy," she said. "When I got back, I wanted to help. The best way for me to do that is to make sure Belldandy's contract is upheld satisfactorily."

"You came to take over the contract?" Keiichi asked, anger entering his voice. "Dammit! I went over this with Freya already!"

"In_deed_," Sif agreed. "And she told me I was perfect for the job as I'm the only volunteer that meets your criteria."

Keiichi blinked. "Huh?"

A lightbulb went off over Urd's head. "Oh, jeez! Okay, I guess Freya gets a point on this one..."

"What are you talking about?" Keiichi demanded.

Urd fixed him with a cool stare in response to his tone, her hands on her hips. "You said it yourself. You would only accept a goddess who loves Belldandy as much as _you_ do." She chucked a thumb at the blonde goddess. "Once again, your own words screw you. Meet Sif, probably the one goddess in Creation outside Belldandy's family who loves her as much as you do."

Keiichi rubbed his temples. "Here we go again."

"Please," Sif began quickly. "It's not like that! I promise!"

"What do you mean?" Urd asked.

She turned to the Norn. "If it's Keiichi sama's wish that I take on the contract, then I am willing to do that for Belldandy's sake. But Freya sama told me about his... reluctance..." She turned back to Keiichi. "Which is _so_ sweet, by the way..." She turned back to Urd again. "But at the same time I know Belldandy's shoes are quite difficult to fill even for a goddess trained in such arts. So I've come to assist you, Urd, in your endeavour! Which room is mine?"

Urd blinked. "End of the hall on the left!" she said with a bright smile.

"Wonderful! Excuse me!" She hefted her suitcase and started down the hall.

"Urd!" Keiichi hissed, stepping up to her. "I thought we were trying to keep the goddess squad off our backs! What's the deal!?"

She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and hissed quietly back. "The deal is she and Belldandy have been inseparable since grade school. They've taken every class together, every summer camp, and every training seminar.... including the _cooking courses_!"

"That's... simply... _wrong_," he told her. "You want to keep her around just because she can cook?!"

She held up the ramen cake. "Eat this!" she hissed angrily at him. "Eat it! Eat it all and tell me what a bad idea her staying is!"

"All right! All right!" he gave in.

Urd let him go with a sigh. "Besides, that's not the best reason to keep her around." She grinned.

"Oh?" he asked.

She faced him and gave him the victory sign. "We needed a first class goddess willing to fight for Belldandy, and now we have one. All we have to do is point her at Hild and get out of the way."

He rubbed his temples again. "Urd..."

Before he could say more, Sif came toward them from down the hall.

"Settled in already?" Urd asked sweetly.

"Oh, I'll unpack later," Sif replied. "I wanted to jump right in. So," she said, clapping her hands together. "I take it from Keiichi sama's reaction that you _don't_ want me to take on the contract?"

"That's right," Keiichi said. "I want Urd to hold onto it."

"But there's plenty of ways you can help us, Sif," Urd threw in. "For instance, Keiichi's underwear is pink, and I have no idea how to fix that..."

Sif smiled. "Oh, then I can truly help you there!"

"I thought you could!"

The blonde pulled out a pair of white gloves and slipped them on. "First we'll do a full inspection, assess your problem areas and then your training will begin in earnest, Urd."

Urd's face fell. "Excuse me?" she queried.

Sif smiled brightly. "If you want a man to eat for a day, you give him a fish. If you want that man to eat the rest of his life, you _teach_ him to fish!"

The Norn's expression darkened. "Yeah, I'm not big on fish..."

Sif's grin was sweet... like candy laced with cyanide. "Oh, you'll _learn_ to enjoy it..."

Keiichi glanced back and forth between them. "I have to go to work," he said, starting carefully for the front door. "You two have a good time..."

"It was nice meeting you, Keiichi sama!" Sif called to him as he slipped out the door.

Urd turned and saw him leaving. "Keiichi! Don't you leave me here alone with..."

The door slammed shut.

"... her..." she finished.

888

Keiichi counted to sixty and blew the whistle as he raised the lightwand to stop traffic in the intersection, the backhoe working diligently not far away. Waving the waiting cars through, he counted to sixty again before switching back, ignoring the angry beeping of car horns.

As he was waving the cars through, his eyes came to rest on a motorcycle waiting at the front of the line. It was an old Honda that had seen better days. A young man was driving with a woman sitting behind him. Brown locks of hair escaped out from under her helmet.

Without meaning to, Keiichi stared, noting the very few, but striking similarities between the woman's build and Belldandy's.

Motorists starting beeping their horns and shouting, and Keiichi suddenly realized he had gone past sixty and was hovering somewhere around two hundred. He quickly changed direction and waved the motorcycle through.

He kicked himself mentally, his thoughts turning bitter and sad.

"Kei chan!"

He didn't hear the hail at first. Megumi, standing at the side of the road, had to call to him three times before he turned to her. The boy saw her wave, and he waved back. He motioned for one of the other part-timers to swap out with him, and he trotted over to her.

"Hey," she said. "I brought you lunch." She handed him a paper bag, and he took it thankfully.

"Thanks," he said.

She saw his preoccupation and put a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied quickly. "Just... stuff..." He smiled and shook his head.

"Stuff, huh?" she asked. "Yeah, I kind of wanted to talk to you about... stuff," she said.

"Like what?" he asked as they walked toward the break area.

"I just came from your place, Kei chan," she said with a little trepidation. "I saw something.... kinda weird."

"What do you mean?" he asked, wishing Megumi would just get to the point.

"Is Urd on some kind of fad work-out plan?" she asked.

"What?" he asked with a chuckle.

"I mean... does she have one of those personal boot camp trainers?" she asked. "When I was there, there was this foreign woman yelling at her... and spraying her with a hose... while Urd ran around in a circle with a mop over her head..."

He stared at her. "I'm sorry," the boy said. "You're going to have to run that past me one more time..."

"I thought you'd say that," she said, pulling out a digital camera. "So I took some video."

888

"I don't see how this makes me a better cook!" Urd cried as she lowered herself into the muddy water for her tenth push-up.

"Because you're weak!" Sif yelled in response from her place nearby. "Because you lack the proper mindset to master the domestic arts! Look at you!" she ordered as Urd pushed herself back up again and the other goddess sprayed her with the hose. "Sure, men will line up to get a better look at your behind, but as you gray you'll lack the skills and attributes that keep them faithful!"

Urd choked on the water as she lowered herself again.

Sif posed theatrically, the back of her hand going to her forehead. "A beautiful woman with no other attractive virtues will, with the coming of years, find her significant other straying... with some... large-chested travel show host on the ION Channel... or... or... a blonde conservative working the desk at Fox News!"

"I think you're getting the wrong idea here!" Urd cried at her. Sif responded by blasting her with the hose again.

"A domestic goddess must have no less the focus, strength and endurance of purpose than that of a samurai warrior!" Sif cried in her drill instructor voice. "If you leave my camp, if you survive training, you will be a weapon! An instrument of cooking, cleaning and man-satisfying!"

"WHAT?!"

She got blasted in the face with the hose. The goddess splashed into the mud below and rolled over to find the blonde pointing down at her.

"I have your name! I HAVE YOUR ASS!" Sif screamed. "You will not laugh! You will not cry! You will learn by the numbers! And I..." She posed theatrically again. "I will teach you as Belldandy and I were taught!"

Urd took several deep breaths. "Wait... Wait just one second! Are you saying Belldandy did this same training?!"

Sif paused. "Well, admittedly, there was a larger classroom portion..."

The Norn climbed to her feet and faced off with Sif. "Forget this!"

She started to stalk off, and Sif turned back to her. "So you're giving up?" she asked. Urd froze. Sif sighed. "Being Belldandy's sister, I had thought you would last longer."

Urd growled as she dripped onto the ground. She whirled on Sif. "All I want is a little advice!" she cried. "Some easy recipes! When and how to use bleach!"

"Is that all you want?" Sif asked. "Or do you want to make Keiichi happy?"

"Huh?" Urd replied.

Sif took a step toward her. "Belldandy's goal wasn't to make a few easy recipes," she said. "Her goal wasn't to just do the minimum. Her goal was to make Keiichi sama happy. As the heir to her contract, you have to ask yourself, not 'what do I want to do,' but 'what did _she_ want to do?'"

Urd stared at her. Sif took another step toward her, bringing her face to face with the Norn. "I love your sister, and I think I know her mind in this. As such, I'm prepared to do what is necessary to reach _her_ goals. If you are not, then I beg you... release yourself from the contract and allow me to take over."

The Norn looked daggers at her. "You think I can't handle it?" she asked.

"I think you could," Sif told her. "But I think you're too ego-centric and selfish as you are. You have to be broken down and remolded. But you won't do that. Because it would inconvenience you too much."

Urd stepped past her and lowered herself into the mud. "Do your worst," she commanded.

"In_deed_!" Sif replied happily. She raised the hose and started the water again.

888

It was just past nine o'clock when Keiichi walked beneath the shrine's torii gate. He tried to rub his left shoulder with his right hand, but was coming up short. Tomorrow he had class, and it looked like he'd be spending the day with a sore back.

He opened the front door and found Sif there, smiling brightly.

"Good evening, Keiichi sama," she greeted him. "Did you have a good day at work?"

"Yeah," he said. "Settling in okay?" he asked her.

"Oh, I'm very comfortable, Keiichi sama," she replied. "It's very kind of you to ask."

He winced as he pulled off his jacket, and Sif stepped behind him to take it from him. "Are you in pain, Keiichi sama?" she asked.

"A little," he admitted.

"Well," she responded, "Dinner is prepared for you, and after that we'll draw you a bath."

"Dinner?" he asked. "Oh, you didn't have to cook, Sif. It's late. I was just going to eat some... ramen..." He sighed.

"Oh!" Sif replied with a clap. "No need for that! Urd san has prepared a wonderful meal for you!"

"Urd did?" he asked. "You know there's a fire extinguisher in the bottom, left-hand cupboard, right?"

"Go to the kitchen," she told him gently as she took his coat down the hall to the closet.

Bracing himself, Keiichi walked to the kitchen and sat down at the table. As he waited, his conversation with Megumi came back to him.

888

"I'm kind of worried about her," Megumi said as Keiichi ate his lunch. "I mean, you're taking Belldandy's leaving pretty well, but I think Urd's not doing as well."

"Wait, _I'm _taking it well?!" he demanded. "How the hell do you figure that?!"

She gave him a wan smile. "What I mean, Kei chan, is that you're taking it the way you're supposed to. You miss her, and it hurts. But Urd is... changing... You can see it. Like with this diet she's on. Skuld's the same way. She's gotten withdrawn and a little odd."

"So what do you think I should do?" he asked.

Megumi squeezed his shoulder. "Just talk to them and remind them that it's okay to still be themselves."

888

Keiichi sat at the table and braced himself for burnt Campbell's tomato soup in a bowl that may or may not be intact. He heard the door to his left slide open and turned his head, doing a double-take.

Urd knelt on the other side of the doorway, her hair worn up in an elaborate braid. A red kimono covered her lithe body. She placed a tray into the room, stepped inside, and slid the door shut behind her.

He watched, flabbergasted, as she silently placed the tray in front of him and bowed to him.

"Um... Urd?" he asked quietly.

"Good evening, Keiichi sama," she said evenly, something very different about the tenor of her voice. "I hope you find this meal satisfactory."

He looked down at the plate and found something he'd only seen in restaurants staring back at him. "Um... thanks..." he said.

At that moment, Sif entered the room and sat down next to him. "Is everything to your liking, Keiichi sama?"

He couldn't break his eyes off Urd, who was woodenly pouring him a cup of tea. He reached out and waved his hands in front of her eyes, getting no response.

"What's wrong with her?" Keiichi asked quietly.

Totally missing the concern in his tone, Sif smiled. "She's found her happiness as a woman!" she declared. "She has been trained in the domestic arts as I and Belldandy were. She is now prepared to serve your every need and desire as Belldandy would have wished."

Keiichi blinked and continued to stare at Urd. "She's been replaced by a pod person," he said.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Sif assured him. "It's still the same Urd!"

"Then why isn't she blinking?" Keiichi asked.

"Blinking accounts for sixty seconds per day that she wouldn't be paying attention to you, Keiichi sama," Sif told him.

He swallowed fearfully.

"Now, then, if you'll excuse me, Keiichi sama, you enjoy your meal, and I'll run you a nice, hot bath." The blonde goddess stood up and left the two of them alone.

The boy watched Urd carefully as the goddess lifted a rice ball with the chopsticks. "Keiichi sama, ah!" she ordered.

"Urd, listen, are you in th...umph!" he broke off as Urd pushed the food into his mouth. He chewed for a moment and swallowed. "Oh, my god, that's fantastic!" he cried. "No! I mean... Urd, listen to me, can you hear me?"

"Hai, Keiichi sama," she said in neutral tones. "Is there something you wish of me?"

He took her head in his hands. "Urd... Urd! Snap out of it!"

Her face reddened. "Keiichi sama is quite bold," she said.

"What?! No!" he cried. "I want you to snap out of it! This isn't you! This is... This is something else! My goddess, what did she do to you?!"

Urd smiled warmly. "Sif sama has shown me the way of the yamato nadeshiko," Urd told him. "How to bring happiness to you as my sister wished..."

"This isn't yamato nadeshiko, this is Dawn of the Dead!" he replied. "Come on! Make a snide remark! Flirt! Sarcasm, Urd! Do you remember sarcasm?! You were great at sarcasm!"

"Ah."

"Ah?"

"Ah!" He felt her push more food into his mouth, and he chewed. "God, that's good," he sighed, his eyes watering. He shook his head. The boy jumped to his feet, pulling her up along with him. "We have to get you out of here! Find someone who can deprogram you!"

"Keiichi sama is so sweet to think of me," Urd said, demurely looking away.

"Stop complimenting me!" he cried. "It's... It's _weird_!"

"Keiichi sama?!" he heard from down the hall. "Is everything all right?"

"Everything's fine, Sif san!" he called back. He turned back to Urd and took her by the arms. "Urd, listen to me! We don't have much time! Please... Please snap out of it!" He looked at her sadly. "Dammit, Urd, I need you... I mean I need _you_! The _real_ you! I can't handle all this by myself!" He was on the verge of tears.

Urd blinked up at him.

"My god, Urd," he whimpered. "Belldandy's gone. Skuld might as well be." He took a breath. "You're all I have left, Urd. I can't lose you too."

She blinked again. "Keiichi... sama... I... I thought this is what you wanted..."

"No," he said. "God, Urd, you don't have to try so hard."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah," he whispered. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Thank god!" she cried, pushing out of his grasp. He watched, dumbfounded, as she picked up the tray and walked over to the TV, turning it on. She started to eat, shaking her head. "Jeez, I'm _starving_!" She looked up at him. "Hey, could you get me a beer? You're closer to the fridge."

"You... you don't have to be deprogrammed at all," he sighed.

She gave him a questioning look. "No, I just told you, I need a beer. Chop chop!"

"What in the name of Frigga's petticoats is going on in here?!"

They turned and found an angry Sif staring at them.

Urd dropped to her knees next to Keiichi. "Ah, Keiichi sama, would you like me to get you a cool, refreshing beverage to..."

"Oh, knock it off, Urd! You're not fooling anyone!" Sif cried.

The Norn sighed. "Busted..."

Sif wrung her hands theatrically. "I can see I've failed. This calls for intensive reeducation and training!"

"No, it doesn't," Keiichi told her. "Look, Sif san, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but you have the wrong idea here."

"Eh?" she asked, puzzled.

"I mean, yeah, Belldandy used to cook and clean for us, and I guess we never really appreciated what she went through, but that was never what made me happy about having her here," he said. "It was just her being herself that made things as wonderful as they were."

Sif gave him a skeptical look.

"Look, Sif san, I'll admit it," he went on. "We're drowning here. I have pink underwear, and none of us have eaten a decent meal in three weeks. We _do_ need help. We just don't need a new Urd or even a new Belldandy."

The blonde goddess bit her lip.

"We need you, Sif," he said.

She sighed and looked away. "I suppose... Belldandy _would_ want me to stay and look after you," she said. The goddess looked Urd's way and arched an eyebrow. "And from what I've seen here already, you can use all the help you can get."

Urd's eyebrow twitched.

"You have no idea," Keiichi admitted.

Sif smiled. "Very well." Her eyes shined. "For the near term, I shall stay and help out."

"That's great!" Urd cried. She held the tray out. "Can I have seconds?"

Keiichi rubbed his temples. "Urd..."

888

Belldandy took a bite of pound cake and tried to hold back a giggle. She was still angry at her sister, who still hadn't explained to her satisfaction her relationship with Keiichi. But the image of her best friend "training" her was... enjoyable.

"So how long did Sif stay with you?" she asked instead.

Urd smiled. "A couple of years," she replied. "She became part of the family, you could say. I guess, when you get right down to it, we were all trying to find ways to fill the void you left behind. Sif helped us do that." Her expression turned dark. "Of course, that whole haunted gypsy carnival thing was entirely her fault..."

Belldandy blinked. "Haunted gypsy carnival?"

"And she _did_ point Kei chan toward his new dream," Urd went on wistfully. She saw Belldandy's questioning look and smiled. "Like I said, Sis. There's still a lot to tell you."


	4. Get It Up

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 4**

**Get It Up**

Belldandy finished the slice of pound cake and put the plate down, deep in thought. From what her sister was telling her, the first few weeks of her absence had placed great strains on her family here on Earth and had ushered in a time of many changes. Some had been for the worse, but she also got the impression that many were for the better.

Urd took her plate and brought it to the sink. "How was it?" she asked.

"Eh?" Belldandy asked.

"The cake," Urd elaborated.

"It was very good, thank you," Belldandy told her politely.

Urd smiled. "I made it. I know, hard to believe, right?"

The younger goddess blinked. It_ was_ rather hard to believe.

"Sif taught me a few things," Urd went on. "And managed to do it without swearing."

"I'm sure Sif meant well," Belldandy told her evenly. "Neesan, you told me that Keiichi found a new dream. What wa..."

Before she could finish, a song began to play.

_We are living in a materiel world!_

_And I am a material gi..._

Urd flipped open her cell phone. "Sorry, I really have to take this," she told her sister. "Hey!" she said into the phone. Belldandy watched as her sister listened to the speaker for several moments. "Um, yeah, let me check."

The moonlight-haired woman went to a wall calendar and put her finger on the tenth of the month. "Yeah, I'm open. What time?" There was another pause. "Okay, with who? Can I have Simone?" she asked, not waiting for an answer. "I really like Simone." Another pause. "Okay. Sounds great. See you there. Bye."

She closed the phone and wrote a quick note on the calendar. "Sorry about that," she said.

"A friend?" Belldandy asked.

"My agent," Urd told her. She looked a little embarrassed. "I got a job."

"A job?" Belldandy asked, unable to keep amazement from her voice. "You mean... a real job?"

"Yeah," Urd sighed. "A real job."

Belldandy stared at her. "A... um... legal... job?"

Urd glared at her darkly. "Yes, a real job where I trade my time for money which can then be traded for goods and services."

"Gomen," Belldandy said. "I didn't mean to imply anything. So, what do you do?"

Urd gave her the victory sign. "I'm a lingerie model!"

"I... see..."

"What?" Urd asked, confused by her tone.

"Nothing... it's just... I was going to ask you about Keiichi's dream, and now I think I'd rather hear about this," Belldandy admitted.

Urd smiled. "As it so happens, both occurred rather close together..."

**_Ten years ago..._**

Keiichi dropped a five-yen coin on the table and sat down. "There it is, folks!" he announced. "The last of the vast Morisato fortune."

None of the three goddesses assembled said anything for several moments. Then Skuld turned to the young man.

"Can I have a pony?" she asked.

Keiichi growled under his breath and cursed his ill luck. Without Belldandy and her part-time job, he had estimated going another month and a half before running out of savings. Unfortunately, adding Sif to the household had screwed those numbers up. Now they were down to the dregs.

"No," he bit out to Skuld. "No one's getting a pony. Or sake," he said, glancing at Urd. "Or the expensive soup stocks," he noted, turning his glance to Sif.

"Well," Sif said sagely, sitting opposite of Keiichi, "We'll simply have to stretch our resources further. If we buy ramen noodles, I can make something close to spaghetti..."

"Jeez, we're going back to ramen?" Urd complained. "Can't we just get Skuld her pony, butcher it and eat that?"

Keiichi took a breath. After working 30 hours a week on top of school, his patience was starting to wane. "Actually," he ground out, "I was thinking you could get a job."

"Yeah, Skuld, it's about time you started..."

"I was talking to _you_, Urd," he broke in.

Her eyes narrowed at him. "Keiichi, I'm going to throw a number at you. That number is thirty-seven. Do you know the significance of that number?"

He sighed. "No, Urd, I don't..."

"That's the number of city blocks I leveled during my brief stint as Lord of Terror," she explained. "Do you remember what pushed me over the edge into _becoming_ the Lord of Terror?"

"Oh, boo hoo hoo!" Skuld told her. "So you had to wait some tables and do a job you didn't want to do! Join the club!"

Urd glared laser bolts at her younger sister. "You could get a job too, you know!"

"I could, but I'm not going to," Skuld told her. "I'm starting to wonder why I'm still here at all. I don't have a contract with Keiichi, and I sure haven't seen anyone doing squat about getting Oneesama back!"

"I told you, we're working on it!" Urd bit back. "If we don't have a way of keeping Hild in check when she arr..."

Skuld waved it aside. "Excuses, excuses!" She rose from her seat. "Now, if you'll excuse me, since this conversation doesn't include me, I'm going back to my lab."

The others watched, awestruck, as Skuld walked down the hall and into her room.

"She's losing it!" Urd told them.

Sif sighed. "I suppose I could get a part-time..."

"No," Keiichi ruled out. He gave her a tired smile. "Sif, you're already doing more than your fair share. I can't ask you to do more for us."

They both looked at Urd.

"Oh, this is crap!" Urd bitched.

Keiichi sighed. "Urd, we had this very same conversation about the chores. It's not about like or dislike, it's about what's fair. And without money, there's no sake, no electricity and no TV."

Urd offered up a dramatic sigh. "Fine," she said. "I'll start looking tomorrow."

"It's supposed to be beautiful today," Sif told her with a smile.

"Fine! I'll start today!" Urd replied with ire.

"What are you doing today, Keiichi sama?" Sif asked.

By an amazing crossing of stars, today was the first day in three weeks where Keiichi had neither classes or work, but even then he couldn't just relax.

"I'm going to the clubhouse," he told her. "There's a race coming up, and the senpais want me to try to squeeze a few more horsepower out of the bike we're submitting."

She gave him a sympathetic look. "You work very hard, Keiichi sama. Is there anything we can do?"

"Nah," he said thankfully. "Thanks for asking, though."

"I'll bring lunch by around noon," she promised him. "So it's nice and hot when you eat."

"Thanks."

888

"What if I sold Skuld to science?" Urd offered. "I'm willing to bet we could get at least a hundred yen."

Keiichi sighed and rubbed his temples as he continued to look for his tool bag. "For god's sake, Urd!" he finally gave out. "I'm not asking you to part the Red Sea, just get a damn part time job!"

He looked up into her angry green orbs as she glared at him and found just a slight touch of pain there. The mortal hadn't meant to lose his temper. He was just so tired...

And he owed Urd. He had to admit she was trying her best.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I am..."

"It's all right, Keiichi," she said, holding up his tool bag, which had been hiding behind the TV. "It's just to me... a job is like prison. Yeah, Belldandy could stand behind a counter and try to make the world a better place one customer at a time, but me..."

"Yeah," he agreed. "But if it was fun, they wouldn't call it 'work,' right?"

She nodded.

"Look," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Don't just grab the first thing. Sit down, make a list of the things you're good at or like doing and try to find something that fits with that."

"Okay, Keiichi," she said quietly. "I'll try, okay?"

"Just... just make sure whatever you end up doing is legal, all right?" he requested.

"God, tie my hands behind my back, while you're at it!" Her expression softened. "Keiichi, stay home today. Take a nap. You're working yourself to death."

"I wish I could," he said. He took a breath. "But I gotta."

"Work I can understand," she said. "But lately it's been school too. You're not taking joy in things, Keiichi. What is it?"

"I'm late, Urd. I'll talk to you later okay?"

Fully aware she was getting the brush off, she growled. "Fine."

He walked out the door and toward his Beemer. Looking up, he caught sight of chestnut hair as someone sitting in the sidecar turned toward him and smiled.

A moment later, that person was gone.

He stood there for a moment, his hand tightening on the bag. Finally, he marched toward the bike, pulled a wrench from the bag and started disconnecting the sidecar. Once it was free, he rolled it off to the side and mounted the bike, putting his helmet on.

Urd was right, and he knew it. He also knew why. Everything he had done at school for the last year and a half he'd done with Belldandy at his side. Every accomplishment he had shared with Belldandy. Every defeat she had comforted him. Every new friend they had made they had made together. There was literally nothing at school she hadn't touched with him.

And he saw her face every... goddamn... time.

He rode out of the temple and toward the school, his thoughts turning bitter and putting a sour spin on his day before it had even started.

888

Urd tapped her pen against the want ads as she walked down the street. So far, Keiichi's idea wasn't working out for her. She was good at potions, great at potions if she was to be believed. Unfortunately, the only job that came close to that was pharmacist, and that required a license.

Other jobs in the paper included fast food (no thanks!), cashier (pass!), and waitress (no, no, no, not even if my mother was dying, no!)

That left very few options.

"Come on, Urd," she whispered. "What else are you good at?"

She was a love goddess... perhaps she could give relationship advice. She quickly turned to the paper's second page and found their address. Smiling at recognizing the street, she hopped up onto the nearest light pole and headed toward the publisher's office.

888

He strained as he pulled on the wrench, trying to loosen the bolt without stripping it. Whoever had put this thing together had been a grade-A moron. He lay on his back under the engine suspended over him on the rack and took a deep breath before pulling as hard as he could on the wrench.

"Keiichi sama?"

At that same moment, the screw gave way, and his hand banged against the rack.

"FUCK!" he cried, flinging the wrench across the room and cradling his hand in the other. "What?!" he demanded, looking up.

Sif looked down at him from under her sun hat, embarrassed and a little frightened at his behavior. "Gomen, Keiichi sama," she said. "I brought you lunch."

He growled, not at her, but at himself. "Sorry, Sif."

"It's all right, Keiichi sama," came the soft, sad reply.

The boy remained on his back, staring up at the engine. "I hate this thing," he said quietly.

"Do you truly?" she asked, pity entering her voice.

He hated hearing that pity.

"Or is it something else?" she asked.

Keiichi didn't move. "This is supposed to be my dream," he told her. "Working on bikes, racing cars, but lately..."

"You no longer feel joy," she supplied.

"It's not that," he replied from under the engine. "I feel incomplete. Everything in this room reminds me of her. That three-wheeled monstrosity outside? She was my navigator when we raced that to our first victory. That second floor storeroom?" He choked a little. "She said she loved me... in that room... not fifteen feet away from us."

"I see," Sif said quietly. "Your dream outgrew you. It encompassed you both."

"And now she's gone, and it's like there's no point to it," he said. "It's like I woke up from a dream and can barely remember it, how it made me feel."

"Then... find a new one."

He paused, wondering if he heard right. "Find a new one? A new what? A new _dream_?" He chuckled and shook his head sadly.

"In_deed_," she replied.

"How do you up and change your dreams, Sif san?" he asked incredulously.

She knelt next to him, removing her hat and laying it aside. "Belldandy used to say, 'dreams are like paperback novels. When you're done reading one, you put it aside and start another.' In terms of mortals, Keiichi sama, you are quite young. You could have many dreams. If this one no longer pleases you, then go out and find another."

He stared up at the engine. "I wish it were that easy," he said.

The goddess smiled at him. "Be careful what you wish for, Keiichi sama."

888

Urd sat across from the editor and put on her best smile. The balding man behind the desk leaned back in his chair and gave her a once over.

"So you want to have a romantic advice column," he summarized. "You have no references, no resume, no degree."

"But I know the heart inside and out," she declared, giving him the line she had practiced all the way to the highrise office building in which the local daily had their headquarters.

"I see," he said. "Okay, let's have a tryout," he told her. He thought for a moment. "Dear Urd," he said as if reading from a letter. "I think I'm in love with my coworker, but he doesn't even know I'm alive. What do I do? Sincerely, Striking Out in Sasebo."

Urd took a breath and gave it some honest thought. Smiling, she gave him the perfect answer.

"Dear Striking Out," she began, "There are many drugs out there that dissolve almost completely in water and are undetectable when..."

888

She broke free of the two men who had "escorted" her out of the office and turned back to angrily yell at the glass door.

"Well, it's true!" she shouted.

Straightening her blouse, she started down the hall for the elevator, grumbling the entire way. This was just going wonderfully. Not only had she been denied a job, she had been tossed out of an office.

What else was she good at? Surely there was something she could translate into...

"Okay, all of you who are here for the job, please stand up."

She stopped and blinked. Job?

The voice had come from an open office door. Peeking in, she found several young women standing around while a man with a clipboard went from one to the other. She stepped inside, intent on asking for more information, but suddenly the clipboard man looked up and saw her.

"You," he said, pointing at her.

"Me?" she asked.

"Yeah, you," he said. "You're perfect. Name?"

"Um... Urd," she said.

He waited. "Urd..." he prompted.

_Oh, right! Last name!_

"Morisato," she blurted, not really knowing why.

"Urd Morisato," he repeated as he wrote it down. "Follow Fujiko, she'll get you set up."

"You don't need an interview or anything?" she asked, blinking.

"We just had it," he told her. "Trust me, babe, you're a winner. Follow Fujiko."

Shrugging, Urd followed the short woman down the hall.

888

"Thanks for coming in today, Morisato," Otaki said as the two stepped out of the clubhouse. The senpai had finally shown up to help around three. An hour later, the work was done.

Keiichi only grunted in response. He still had a lot on his mind, Sif's words still echoing in his head. If only it was that easy...

"Excuse me!"

The two men stopped and turned. A young raven-haired woman wearing blue jeans and a brown leather jacket over a black t-shirt studied them intently.

"Are one of you Keiichi Morisato?" she asked, her voice seasoned with a strange accent he found vaguely familiar.

"Yeah," he said tiredly. "That's me."

She stepped up to him and smiled. "Oh, wonderful!" she said...

Then punched him in the jaw.

The boy stumbled back and hit the ground. A moment later, the woman was on him, holding him by the front of his jacket.

"What the hell did you do to that poor airplane, ya tosser?!" she demanded angrily.

"Hey!" Otaki cried. "Just what the..."

She turned and pointed at him. "Nobody asked you, mate! Mind your own bizzo!" she warned him. She looked back down at Keiichi and shook him. "Now what did you do to it?!"

"Do what to what?!" he cried.

"The Shinden, ya whacker!" she shouted. "I wanna know what you did to the poor ol' bird!"

He blinked. "The Shinden? I haven't even laid eyes on the Shinden in a year and a half! I thought the school gave it to a museum!"

"You're the only galah to ever fly it, and no one since has been able to get 'er off the ground!" she growled at him.

He closed and opened his eyes, trying to make sense of the girl's speech. "What?" he asked.

"I want to know," she said slowly, as if talking to a child, "What you did... to the Shinden... you fucking whacker."

Keiichi wasn't sure what to say. "I flew it," he said. "We landed. That was it. What's it to you?"

The girl growled. "All right, mate, you're coming with me."

"I am?" he asked.

"Relax," she said, starting to calm down. "It's a piece of piss for ya. You undo whatever you did to the Shinden, and I won't get anymore angry than you've already seen."

"But I didn't do anything to it!" Keiichi cried.

"Right-o, off we go, then!" she said, pulling him to his feet by his collar.

888

"So," Keiichi said, noting uncomfortably that the woman was driving the jeep they were in further and further away from the school. "What's your name?"

The woman, now wearing a tan boonie cap with one side pinned up and a pair of sunglasses, extended a hand to him. "Hotaru, Hotaru Woodward. They call me Razor."

He reached out and shook her hand with some trepidation, still unsure whether or not he was being kidnapped.

"So," he began again. "What do you have to do with the Shinden?"

"I'm supposed to be her pilot," Hotaru told him. "If I can ever get the wowser into the air, that is. Apologies if I was spew'in back there," she said. "There's a lot of grades on the line here."

"Grades?" he asked.

"The Shinden's a group project," she told him as they turned onto an access road. "The Aeronautics Club, the Electronics Club, the History Club, and about two or three others all got their professors onboard, and they agreed to let us restore her and enhance her as a term project instead of spending all year in a classroom. Only problem is that in order to pass, she's gotta fly."

"And it won't fly?" he asked.

Hotaru shook her head. "Got us gobsmacked. Everything checks out right, but every time we start her up, something goes bad."

"And you think _I_ did something to it?" he asked.

She sighed. "Truth be told, mate, I don't know, but we're out of options and out of time. She has to be in the air ten days from now."

The jeep turned into the Nekomi Public Airport and took a side street away from the main terminal, coming to a stop near a hangar with a sign that read, "Nekomi Institute of Technology Department of Aerospace Studies. KEEP OUT."

Hotaru hopped out of the jeep and strode toward the entrance, opening the door for Keiichi. The boy stepped inside and saw the familiar lines of the airplane he had once flown as a gimmick to recruit members into the Auto Club.

There were only two like it in the entire world. One was on display at the Smithsonian in the United States. The other had been buried under what was to be the Auto Club clubhouse. He and the senpais had found it after Aoshima razed the clubhouse to the ground. With Belldandy's help, they had put it back together, and Keiichi flew it to, as Belldandy put it, allow the Shinden to live its dream.

It looked different from the last time he had seen it. It seemed newer, shinier, and someone had painted it a mix of reds, oranges and yellows. He stepped toward it.

A tall, lanky boy noticed them. "Razor," he called to Hotaru. "This the guy?"

"Too right, mate," she replied. "He said he'd take a looksee."

"God, I hope you're right," the boy said as Keiichi reached out to the plane. "We're down to the wire, here."

He touched the wing and closed his eyes. _Shinden? _

The boy hadn't really expected a response. The plane spoke more to Belldandy than to him, but it had communicated with him when it needed to. This time, however, it had no qualms about getting its point across.

_Keiichi! Thank God!_

He blinked at the force in the communication. _I thought they put you in a museum._

_No, it turns out the Ministry of Education got rights to everything on the campus, so the school is using me as a teaching aid._

Keiichi bit his lip, aware that everyone in the hangar was staring at him. He decided to resolve this quickly.

_Shinden, what's the problem? These people don't want to hurt you. They want to let you fly. Isn't that what you want?_

_Of course I want to fly! But Keiichi... look at me! I can't go out in public looking like THIS! I look like something out of a Flash Gordon comic!_

He blinked in surprise. _Wait a second, you've been sabotaging your own flights because you're self conscious?_

_Honestly! Look at me! I'm a million-yen war machine, not a Tahitian whore!_

_Okay, okay,_ he replied. _But you can still fly, right?_

_Damn right I can fly! _

"What's the verdict there, Obi Wan?" Hotaru asked him with an arched eyebrow.

He took a breath. "You have to repaint it," he announced.

"What?!" the boy cried. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever..."

Hotaru cut him off. "The bird tell you that, did she?"

Keiichi had run out of patience. They brought him here, this was his answer. "That's right," he said. "You repaint it and it'll fly."

"I see," Hotaru said with a grin. "And what would she like us to repaint her?"

He was still touching the Shinden, so it answered. _Blue! Or black! Yes! Black! Like a hot, black wind of death!_

Keiichi sighed. "Black would be preferable, but blue is acceptable." He walked past the pilot toward the door. "That's all I got for you."

The Aeronautics Club member shook his head. "You gotta be kidding me. What is he, the frigg'n plane whisperer?" He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "What do you want to do, Razor?"

The pilot shrugged. "Repaint her, I suppose."

"You really think that's going to work?"

She shrugged again. "Don't know. But it's London to a brick what'll happen if we do nothing."

"Okay, if you say so," he sighed.

"Don't whinge," she chastised him. "It'll all work out. No worries."

She followed Keiichi out the door into the parking lot. "Hey!" she called out to him. "Give you a lift?"

The boy considered for a moment, then nodded. They climbed into the jeep, and Hotaru pulled out of the parking lot.

"All right then," she said. "Come on, be honest. You just fucking with us back there?"

"You wanted my opinion, that's my opinion," he said tiredly.

"Fair enough," she replied. A minute of silence followed.

Finally, curiosity caught up with him. "Where are you from?" he asked. "England or something?"

"Watch who you're calling pommie there, ratbag," she said without heat. "I'm a cockroach, thank you very much."

"Yeah, I didn't understand half that," he admitted.

"I'm from Australia," she told him with a smile. "New South Wales. My oldies still live down there. Father's a bush pilot, mother's a doctor."

"So what are you doing here?" he asked.

"My mother's from here," she said. "I like the area, and Nekomi has a good aeronautics program. What about you?"

"Hokkaido," he told her. "Couldn't take the snow anymore."

"Too right, mate," she said with a grin.

They pulled up to the Auto Club clubhouse and stopped. "Here we are," she said. "Safe and sound, just as I promised."

Keiichi opened the door. "Let me know how it turns out," he said.

"Will do," she said.

He was about to shut the door, but paused. "No," he said, turning back to her. "Do me one better."

"How do ya mean?" she asked.

"If you repaint the Shinden, and it flies for you," he said, "I want to fly her again."

She stared at him. He had no idea why he made the request, but now it was out there.

"Tell you what," she said, removing her sunglasses. "I'll let you fly _in_ her."

"There's only one seat," he said.

"Two seats," she corrected. "We extended the cockpit so we could fit a photographer. Everything works out, I'll take you up on the first flight."

He nodded. "Okay, sounds good."

"And this way," she said with a grin, "If you really are fucking with us, I'll get to take you with me when we hit the ground and disintegrate!"

"Great," he muttered.

"Hooroo, then," she said, putting her shades back on. "You'll hear from me one way or another."

He closed the door and watched the jeep roll off.

888

Keiichi stepped through the front door and took off his shoes. "Tadaima!" he called out.

"Welcome home, Keiichi sama," Sif greeted. "How was the rest of your day?"

He stopped to think before answering. "Interesting," he finally said. "Yours?"

She smiled. "It's been exciting," she said. "Urd san has a new job!"

Keiichi shook his head, thunderstruck. "Really?" he asked. "That was fast."

"In_deed_!" Sif agreed. "She said she found something that suits her talents."

"So what is she doing?" Keiichi asked.

888

"Lingerie model?" he asked in an incredulous whisper from the doorway of her room.

Urd, working on her latest potion, looked up and grinned. "That's right. They even paid me for the work I did today. I gave it to Sif so she could do the shopping, minus a small cut for me."

He folded his arms over his chest. "How did you..."

"Oh, Keiichi, can't you guess?" she asked. "I was only following your advice."

"My advice?" he asked, trying to remember what he might have told her.

"Indeed," she purred. "You told me to find something that I'm good at, well..." She stood up and stretched, giving him an eyeful of her figure. "Being sexy is something that's _always_ come naturally to me."

He laughed, and Urd smiled at the sound. He hadn't been doing that enough lately, she thought.

"Well, I'm not going to argue," he said.

"Wise decision," she praised him. "What about you? Feeling any better?"

Keiichi thought for a moment. "Maybe," he said. "Just maybe."


	5. Looking to the Sky to Save Me

Disclaimer: AMG is not mine. Teletha Tessatarosa is not mine either.

Shameless plug: Okay, I thought this fic was going to be walking the tight-rope of alternative pairings, but if you want to read a fic by a guy who took that idea to an even higher plane of dimensional freaking reality, then read "The Goddess and the Sky" by WillZ. Now playing.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 5**

**Looking to the Sky to Save Me**

Urd blinked at the glare her sister was shooting her. So far, they had managed to have a civilized conversation without the jealousy storms she had been so fearful of.

"What?" Urd asked.

Belldandy held the glare for another three heartbeats before answering.

"'Urd Morisato?'" she asked.

The elder Norn gulped. "Look, it was the first thing that came to mind, that's all!"

"I see. I'm sure it was on your mind quite a bit," Belldandy said with some acid.

Urd grit her teeth. "Dammit, Sis, this is a story, not a confession! Now do you want to hear the rest of it or do you want to find some vast conspiracy in every turn of phrase?!"

Belldandy bit her lip.

"I'm not going to hide from you, Sis," Urd told her. "I'll come right out and say it. I'm in love with Keiichi Morisato, and he loves me. What I won't do is let you leave this house thinking that I took advantage of the situation for my own ends."

"I see," Belldandy said sadly. "Then please continue."

**_Ten years ago..._**

"Check it out!" Urd said, practically bouncing with excitement. "I'm on the cover!"

"Cover?" Keiichi asked just as Urd shoved a catalogue under his nose. He turned red at the sight of Urd in a white satin chemise, laying on a leather couch with a come hither look.

Sif clapped her hands and smiled broadly. "Urd san! You're so beautiful!"

"Thank you, Sif," she replied with a victorious grin.

Keiichi didn't say anything. He cleared his throat.

Urd saw his discomfiture and grinned evilly. Producing a pen, she leaned over, putting her breasts closer to his eyes for a better look.

"Here," she said. "Let me sign that for you."

He glanced down and saw her write the words, "To my number one fan! XOXOXO! Urd."

"There," she said. "Now in 20,000 years, it'll be worth something."

"Great," he said. "Thanks."

"So now what will you do?" Sif asked her.

"What do you mean?" Urd asked. "You told me to get a job, and I got one. Now it's over."

Sif started to sweat. "I don't think it works that way..."

"You mean I have to get another job?" Urd asked with a devastated look on her face.

"I'm afraid so," Keiichi told her.

"Perhaps the same company will ask you again," Sif suggested helpfully.

Urd put a finger to her lips. "Well... I was rather good at it..."

Keiichi stood up and picked his school bag up, shoving the catalogue inside.

"You better frame that!" Urd told him with a point of her finger. "That's history!"

"Whatever," he laughed, heading out the door.

888

He parked the bike next to the clubhouse and found a familiar figure standing next to the door. Removing his sunglasses as he dismounted, he caught sight of the sly smile pointed in his direction. He had to admit, the girl could fill out a flight suit.

"Were you waiting for me, Hotaru san?" he asked.

"I'm a woman of my word, Keiichi," she replied.

He blinked at her. It had been a week since his afternoon at the Aeronautics Club and the Shinden. He honestly didn't expect to hear from the Australian again.

She saw his confusion and elaborated. "I don't know how, I don't know why, and I can't even come close to finding some other explanation," she said. "But ever since the new paint dried on the old bird, she's been running like a Swiss clock. Every test run-up we've done has been five-by-five. We're gonna fly her today, and you're invited."

"Really?" he asked.

"What? You think I was giving you a pork pie?"

"Um... no?" he guessed.

"Too right!" she replied, jabbing him in the chest with her finger. "So that means you have to be there! Four o'clock! Bring ya next-o'-kin so there's someone there to identify the body!"

He stared at her in disbelief.

"Holy dooley, mate!" she laughed. "You are a wowser, aren't ya? I just meant you can bring some mates if you like."

"Oh," he replied. "Okay! Great!"

"Good! See you there!"

He watched her walk off and smiled as he opened the club house. The day was looking up.

888

Urd nervously poked her head into the front office, feeling almost like a beggar. She didn't know what she was supposed to say or do. Should she be up front and demand work or get on her knees and beg?

Fujiko saw her and blinked. "Wow, that was fast!"

Caught off guard, Urd almost tripped. "Huh?" she asked instead.

"I just left a message for you five minutes ago," the assistant told her.

"Um... message?" Urd said stupidly.

"You can go right in," Fujiko said, waving toward a door adorned with the words, "CEO."

_Did I do such a great job that they've decided to let me run the company?!_ Urd thought. She pictured herself sitting behind an ornate desk in a power suit, yelling obscenities into a telephone and smiled brightly.

Squaring her shoulders, she opened the door and stepped through, coming to a stop almost immediately.

A short, young woman in a green dress suit behind a glass desk, looking over something on a computer monitor. The woman looked very young to be the president of a company, playing with the end of her nearly platinum white braid as she read.

The woman looked up and smiled. "Ah! Morisato san!" she greeted, rising to her feet. "I'm glad you came." She bowed and then offered her hand as she rose again. "Teletha Tessatarossa, president of Whispers of Romance Lingerie and Sensual Attire."

"It's nice to meet you," Urd said, still not sure where all this was going.

"Please sit down," Teletha prompted, walking to a tea set sitting on a counter not far away. "Tea?"

"No, thank you," the Norn replied.

"Of course," the young woman said in self reproach. "You're obviously busy and want to get down to business."

"Business?" Urd asked.

Teletha sat down again. "Normally I don't meddle in the affairs of my marketing department, but when I saw your pictures in this week's catalogue, I had to speak up!"

_Is she coming onto me? Should I play into this?_ Urd thought. "Well," she said. "I'm flattered." She absently touched her throat and crossed her legs as nearly a millenia of being a love goddess taught her to do.

"Do you know what lingerie is for, Morisato san?" Teletha asked her. "It's supposed to enhance the natural sensual beauty of the woman wearing it. When I saw your pictures, I knew you had somehow done the opposite. Your beauty enhanced the product! You're a very skilled model!"

"Oh... um... thank you," Urd replied.

"I tried to look up other shoots with you, but I couldn't find you in any catalogues, Japanese or otherwise," Teletha complained, puzzled.

Urd cleared her throat. "Well... I'd never actually modeled before..."

"I can't believe that!" Teletha suddenly cried. "I spoke to the photographer who shot your pictures! The way he spoke of you, I think he was in real danger of falling in love!"

It was time to play hardball.

"Actually," Urd began. "I came here today wondering if you might have more work for me."

The young woman began nodding fiercely. "Indeed! Indeed!" she cried. "However..." The girl suddenly turned sad, looking down at her lap.

Urd blinked. "What?"

"Gomen nasai," Teletha told her sadly. "I'm afraid we're not a large enough company to offer you the kind of compensation you would demand..."

Urd bit her lip as two angels appeared on her shoulders. On her left shoulder, a devil Belldandy cutely held a pitchfork while on her right, a cherubic Peorth played a harp.

Peorth glanced at her. "Now, now," she said. "It's obviously this poor, stupid girl believes you're something special. You're only working to help out Keiichi. There's no need to demand more than this girl can pay and risk a sure thing."

The devil Belldandy smiled. "I respectfully disagree with my counterpart and think you should laugh in her face, turn down her offer and go see someone at Chidori's Secret."

Urd hmm'd in thought.

Belldandy's smile broadened. "Then, as long as no one minds, you should murder her and dump her body in the bay."

Urd and Peorth stared at her aghast. The cherub looked up from Urd's shoulder and caught the Norn in her disapproving glare. "You are one messed up goddess!"

The angel and demon disappeared.

"Well," Urd began, "As long as the pay is commensurate with the work... I kind of liked working for your company..."

Teletha brightened visibly. "Wonderful! I drew up a one-year contract!"

The goddess started to sweat, suspecting she had been played as the business woman passed a stack of papers across her desk.

"You will be compensated at the standard rate for modeling services, no nudity," Teletha added, "And will be expected to attend company events."

"Company events?" Urd asked suspiciously.

"Parties and grand openings and the like," Teletha explained. "Our models are often a big draw at such events."

Urd cleared her throat. "I'm not supposed to do anything illegal," she pointed out.

Teletha turned red. "Well, while it's been known to happen in the past, it doesn't happen in this company, but I understand your concerns. Do you have representation?"

"Representation?"

"An agent?" Teletha reworded. "Someone who can look over this contract for you?"

Urd smiled. "It just so happens I know a little something about contracts."

"Wonderful!" Teletha cried, clapping happily.

"Is it okay if I look over this and stop by tomorrow?" she asked.

"Of course! But I have to warn you, I can only afford to hire one new model, and I have another young woman coming here in an hour to..." She broke off and smiled as Urd signed her name at the end of the contract. "I look forward to working with you! Welcome to Whispers!"

888

"Oh! Urd!" Sif called at seeing the goddess enter the house. "You're just in time! Keiichi says we've been invited to a special event!"

The Norn, new contract in hand, found Sif, her sister and Keiichi sitting at the kitchen table. "Awesome. By the way, I officially have a new job."

"Congratulations!" Sif told her with an encouraging smile. The smile never wavered as she went on. "You're not selling drugs, are you?"

Urd grumbled. "No, I'm not selling drugs."

"I only bring it up because with the stuff in your potions cupboard, you could probably make a fortune!"

The Norn blinked in shock then turned and growled. "Damn! I should have thought of that!" She turned back and smiled. "But I don't have to concern myself with such things as I'm now officially a model."

"That's great, Urd," Keiichi told her. "I'm happy for you."

"Yeah!" Skuld threw in with a big smile. "We're so happy that you're getting your picture taken in your underwear! Good use of time there, champ!"

Keiichi and Sif turned to the youngest goddess in amazement. Urd, meanwhile, felt fury rise in her.

"Skuld!" Keiichi cried in shock. "What kind of thing is that say!?"

The young Norn didn't back down. She folded her arms over her chest and doubled down. "Hey, it's not that I'm not happy that her career is taking off, I'm just pointing out that there are better things she's supposed to be doing with her time. You know, like freeing Oneesama? Remember Oneesama? Tall, brown hair, blue eyes? Tolerated you for who knows why?"

"Hey!" Urd shot back. "You like eating, right? You like having electricity for your stupid little inventions, don'tcha?!"

Skuld rose from her seat and started down the hall.

"Hey! Get back here!" Urd shouted. Skuld froze. "You're not getting off the hook this time! I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but..."

Skuld turned on her like an enraged snake. "What's gotten into ME?! What about YOU?! Our sister is trapped in some black, evil place and you're prancing around in your panties playing supermodel! And you!" She turned a finger on Keiichi. "What the heck have you done to get her back?! Huh?! Have you done _anything_?!"

Keiichi looked like he had been punched in the stomach. He looked down at the table, but didn't answer.

"You know what?" Skuld went on. "To heck with this. You go have your fun. When you're ready to actually help Oneesama, then you can talk to me."

She turned and started down the hall, seething as she made a beeline for her lab. As her hand rested on the doorhandle, she heard Sif speak up from behind her.

"Skuld chan?"

"Yeah, what?!" she cried as she turned.

Just in time to take the slap directly on her left cheek.

The force of the blow dropped her to her knees. She carefully touched her face in disbelief and looked up to find Sif standing over her, tears pooled in her closed eyes. Skuld opened her mouth to speak, but words wouldn't emerge. Finally, Sif began speaking quietly, just above a whisper.

"You're fortunate," she said quietly. "Very fortunate that your sister wasn't here to hear you say those awful things. If she had, she would have been so hurt and so angry, I doubt your relationship with her would have ever been the same."

Skuld stared up at her, tears pooling in her eyes.

"You don't have to like who your sister chose to associate herself with," Sif went on. "But you will respect the love she has for them and you _will_ respect the love they have for her. Everyone here, each of us, has been hurt by this. We are _all_ being forced to fill the hole left in our hearts, _especially_ Keiichi sama." She opened her eyes and fixed the young goddess with a fierce stare. "And so help me, God," she said, "If you _ever_ act that cruelly to them again, I will put you over my knee and spank you like the five-year-old you're behaving like!"

Skuld slowly rose to her feet, her incensed eyes never leaving the other goddess.

"You leave me alone," Skuld hissed at her. "You're not my sister. And I don't have to listen to you. You being here doesn't mean you're family."

"Belldandy is my family," Sif told her.

"Then how about doing something to get her back?" Skuld bit out before opening the door and slinking into her lab.

888

Keiichi stared down at the table, seeing his own reflection in the polished wood. He only barely heard Urd speaking and didn't realize she was saying his name until she took his arm and shook him.

"Keiichi!"

He looked up. "Huh?"

She looked at him with worried eyes. "It's not true," she told him quietly.

"She's right," he whispered.

The goddess shook him again. "No, she's not!" she told him sternly.

"I should have done something," he said. "It's been weeks, and what have I done? Going to school? Fixing bikes? What the hell..."

He felt her shake him again and he looked up into her eyes.

"Keiichi, this is going to sound cruel, but it's true," she told him. "There is _nothing_ you can do. Do you understand?"

He blinked. "Urd..."

"_Nothing!_" she repeated firmly. "You're beating yourself up over what a _child_ said! Well let me give you a good healthy dose of reality, because you need to hear it. There is not one thing you can do right now to free Belldandy any faster. Not a single thing."

The mortal looked back down, feeling his chest constrict.

"Now here's something you also need to be aware of," she went, her voice softening. "Belldandy _will_ be free someday. Maybe a year from now, maybe five hundred years from now. If it's later rather than sooner, the first thing she's going to do is come to me and ask me about you. How you lived, were you happy, did you live your dream..." She paused to let this sink in. "I am _not_ going to tell her that you spent your youth feeling guilt-ridden and sorry for yourself because you let a _little girl_ make you believe you were failing to do something you have no hope of accomplishing."

Keiichi swallowed back the bile in his throat.

"Keiichi, look at me," Urd whispered. He lifted his head and found Urd's eyes, the green orbs moistened with tears. "If you want to do something for Belldandy, then do this: Spite Hild. Do the things that make you happy. Find that joy again." She squeezed his arm. "Find it before you _do_ get old. That's what she wants. Somewhere out there, Belldandy is hoping that you're happy."

He nodded. "You're right."

"Of course I'm right, Keiichi. Look who you're talking to," she replied.

He tried to smile.

"Now what's this event we're going to?"

Keiichi gave her a quick rundown about the Shinden's flight and his role in getting it to fly again.

"That old airplane you found under the Auto Club?" she asked, blinking. "You're going to fly in that thing again? Don't you think you're pressing your luck?"

He shrugged. "I guess we'll see."

888

"G'day! Glad you made it!"

Keiichi's eyes finally found Hotaru as the Aussie woman approached them. His gaze had been focused on the newly repainted Shinden sitting in the hangar nearby. The artist had given it a glossy, raven-black paint-job with electric-blue lightning bolts adorning the wings and sides.

"Hey, Hotaru san," he greeted. "Wow, it looks great."

"Doesn't it?" she beamed. "She's right sexy now." She turned to Urd and Sif. "G'day, I'm Hotaru." Without waiting for an answer, she turned back to Keiichi. "Come on, I'll give you a looksee before we get off."

"Sounds great," he said. The two started toward the airplane, leaving the two goddesses unchaperoned for the moment.

"Is he feeling better?" Sif asked her. "He didn't look well when he left earlier."

That was true, Urd had to admit. Keiichi had driven the Beemer to the airfield while the goddesses took Stringfellow. Urd wanted the broom nearby, just in case, but she could still see the utterly haunted expression in the boy's eyes as he put on his motorcycle helmet.

"I hope so, Sif," she said quietly. She shook her head. "When I have time I'm giving Skuld a piece of my mind."

"I spoke to her," Sif told her. "And I wasn't gentle." She bit her lip. "I fear Skuld chan is internalizing Belldandy's loss much worse than you or Keiichi. I think we should make more of an effort to include her."

Urd shrugged. "She didn't want to come. What am I supposed to do? Drag her here so I can listen to her bitch the entire time?"

Before Sif could reply, she noticed a couple of young men in tan coveralls looking in their direction and whispering.

"Urd san," she began, "I believe those young men have taken an unwholesome interest in us."

"Of course they are, Sif," Urd sighed. "They're nerds."

"Nerds? What are nerds?"

"Nerds, Sif, are ... well... _nerds_."

The blonde sighed. "Honestly, Urd, if you don't want to tell me just say so."

888

Hotaru slapped the fuselage and wing in three places. "Feet here, here and here. Don't step here or here," she ordered, pointing at two other places. She helped him onto the wing and followed him up.

"We extended the cockpit and installed a rear seat for a photo-nav," she explained. "That's where you're sitting. The Electronics Club saw what you monkeys from Auto did to the instruments and went all out, giving us a completely glass cockpit."

Keiichi tapped the canopy with this knuckles. "What was it made of before?" he asked quizzically.

Hotaru grinned. "No, not that. A glass cockpit is one that doesn't use old fashioned dials. Everything is digital and touch screens. Like the F-22 the yanks get to play with only not as figjam."

She pointed at the wings. "We replaced her armament with two cameras, one regular, one infra-red."

"Why?" he asked.

"The Aeronautics Club is part of the Auxilliary Flight Patrol," she explained. "Some whacker goes out hiking in the outback and gets himself lost, our planes are part of the search. That infrared baby would let us find a dead man frozen in the snow in the dead of winter with his pecker hanging out of his shorts, it's so sensitive."

Keiichi nodded, impressed by the level of effort the Aeronautics Club went to.

"Reconfigured her engine to a turboprop," she went on. "She's got some real ass on her now."

"Sounds like you made a lot of changes," Keiichi noted.

"The principle of the assignment was whether or not we could take an old bird like this and reconfigure her to be useful in the modern age," Hotaru explained, opening the cockpit. "I think we did rather good considering there are no spare parts for this model anywhere."

Keiichi lightly touched the fueslage. _Are you okay with this? Changing you so much, I mean?_

He got the response immediately. _Are you kidding? Take a look at me! I'm downright sexy!_

The student sighed. "You keep calling it 'her,' huh?" he asked Hotaru.

Hotaru shrugged. "Never met a bird that wasn't."

The Shinden continued undeterred. _Somebody! Quick! Call 911! This airplane is ON FIRE!_

The Aussie pulled a folded tan flight suit out of the Shinden's cockpit and handed it to him. "You can change in the bathroom over there," she said, pointing across the hangar. "We'll be taking off in about twenty minutes."

888

"Well, if you're so interested in them, why don't you go flirt with one of them?" Urd suggested, exasperated by the other goddess's incessant questions.

"Flirt?" Sif asked. "I couldn't do that!"

"And why not?" Urd asked.

"Because we've not been introduced properly," Sif explained. "I can't just walk up to a strange man and expect him to pay attention."

Urd narrowed her eyes at the goddess, thoroughly impressed and saddened by Sif's naivete. "I'll make you a bet."

"A bet?"

"Yup, a bet," Urd went on. "Casually walk over there and drop your hat. Every one of those three guys will drop to pick it up. I guarantee it. And if they do, whoever gives you the hat, you have to talk with."

"What if one of them doesn't?" Sif asked. She arched an eyebrow. "Will you flirt with them?"

Urd rolled her eyes. "Are you nuts? You want the System Force to bring this entire hangar down? Until Belldandy comes back, I'm off the market."

Sif blinked as another aspect of their arrangement suddenly presented itself. The System Force would prevent anything that might "break up" Keiichi and Urd. While this might be okay with Keiichi, who was willing to wait forever for Belldandy to come back, it also meant that Urd was essentially forbidden from pursuing any kind of romantic relationship. The revelation impressed Sif. Denying one's heart was difficult for a woman.

She wanted to squeeze the goddess's arm, show her support, but she didn't think Urd would appreciate the gesture. Instead, she gripped her hat in both hands.

"Very well. I accept your wager."

Urd watched the blonde walk over to the three maintainers and with a "Whoops! Silly me!" drop her hat between them.

The resulting dash between the three men to retrieve the goddess's hat looked more like a cross between a rugby game and a mixed martial arts competition. Finally, the tallest boy, bruised and bloodied, handed the hat to Sif, who smiled graciously as she brushed some dirt and what appeared to be a tooth off of it.

The Norn shook her head.

888

Keiichi nervously thumbed the straps of his shoulder harness as the turboprop powering the Shinden came to life behind him. Sitting in the seat in front of him, Hotaru was going through her final checklist. He turned and saw Urd and Sif waving at him from the hangar doors. He weakly waved back and went back to thumbing the harness again.

_Don't worry, _the Shinden assured him. _I've never ever crashed before._

_You've only flown once before,_ he pointed out.

_I stand by my statement._

"Tower, this is Nevada-One-Two-One-Papa-Papa," Hotaru announced into her radio. "We're green across the board. Ready for take-off."

"Roger Nevada-One-Two-One-Papa-Papa," the air traffic controller replied. "You're number one on the runway. Have a good flight."

Keiichi felt the plane move as it rolled toward the end of the runway and stopped short of the hold line.

"All right, mate," Hotaru said, turning her head back to him. "You ready?"

He swallowed and nodded. "Yeah."

She turned forward, and he heard the engine rev up just as he was pushed back into his seat. The Shinden was launching itself down the runway at full power. He bit his lip and tried to relax. A swarm of butterflies was trying to eat their way out of his stomach, which suddenly constricted as the Shinden left the earth below and started a steep climb into the sky.

"Allee-OOP!" Hotaru cried as she threw the Shinden into a roll. Keiichi cried out in response. When he had flown the Shinden, he had kept it as level as possible until it was time to land.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" he cried out.

Hotaru laughed. "Tower, this is Nevada-One-Two-One-Papa-Papa!" she called down to the ground. "All systems are go!"

Keiichi looked down at the digital altimeter and saw that they had already passed two thousand feet. Looking out the window, he saw the earth spinning sickeningly below them.

The Shinden leveled off at five thousand feet, and Hotaru turned back to him. "How you do'in back there, mate? You're not gonna chunder in my bird, are you?"

"No," Keiichi called back, smiling. "No, I'm good." His stomach was calming as the wonder of what he was doing started to take hold. He was five thousand feet in the air, held aloft by sixty year old technology. Not magic, or some weird invention, but metal, glass and ingenuity.

Hotaru smiled, recognizing the look on his face. She decided to have some fun with the boy. "B-29s!" she cried. "Two o'clock low! We got the jump on 'em! Tally ho!"

"Wait, what?!" he cried just as Hotaru banked hard right and started a steep dive.

_WHEEEEEEEE!!!_ the Shinden whooped in glee in his head.

"BADADADADADADADA!!!" Hotaru shouted in a poor imitation of machine guns. She rolled the fighter onto its right side and pulled up hard.

Keiichi felt his stomach do a backflip, but instead of vomitting, he laughed hysterically, partly out of fear, partly out of exhilaration.

"I think we got him!" Hotaru shouted.

_Again! Again!_ the Shinden cried.

The plane leveled off again, and Hotaru yawned. "Tell you what, mate," she said. "Downing seppo bombers makes me stuffed. You take over for awhile." She punctuated this by yawning loudly and stretching both arms over her head.

Keiichi paled at seeing the Aussie with her hands off the controls and quickly grabbed the stick. The Shinden rocked in protest.

"Careful, mate, careful!" she cautioned. "You're flying her, not root'n her. Grab a lady like that, o'course she's going to shake you off, and we're a little high up for that."

"Sorry," he apologized.

"Just hold her steady," Hotaru told him. She checked a map and looked out the right side of the plane. "Okay, now gently push down on the right rudder pedal."

Keiichi did as he was told and the plane started to turn right.

"That's good," she said. "Hold her steady here."

The boy smiled. He was flying.

"My grandfather had a plane," he told her suddenly, not really knowing why. "He took me flying a couple of times when I was real little. Even let me hold the stick once and 'fly.' He said he'd teach me one day, but he died when I was seven. I guess I just forgot about it, but I always wished he could have taught me."

Hotaru smiled. "Your first experience came from love," she told him. "That's important. Love is important when you fly. If you don't love it, if you have no passion for it, it's just another task like mow'n the lawn. Love makes your bird fly when the laws of physics say it should crash. If you love her, she'll love you back."

He smiled. "Thank you, Hotaru san," he told her. "For this."

"Come on," she said with a grin. "Let's splash a few Corsairs before we land!"

888

They returned to cheers and the sound of champagne bottles opening. Hopping down from the Shinden, the Aeronautics Club quickly spread a banner in front of the Shinden that proclaimed, "First Flight!" and gathered everyone around for a group picture. Afterward, the group started breaking up and piling into cars for the victory party set to take place at a bar downtown.

But Keiichi stayed, sitting on a crate in front of the Shinden, looking at it and thinking. He never believed in fate before he met Belldandy. Everything happened for a reason, she told him, and he was starting to wonder if meeting Hotaru the very day Sif told him to find a new dream had happened for a reason.

He stared at the plane, the gears in his head working overtime, toying with new ideas. It was time for a change, he knew. Time to try something different.

The mortal felt rather than heard the person behind him. He turned and blinked, finding Urd standing there.

"Hey," he said, turning back to the plane. "Why didn't you go to the party?"

"I'll go," she assured him. "Just wanted to make sure you were doing okay."

Keiichi smiled. "It was... I can't describe it," he said.

"Sounds like you had a good time," she said.

"Yeah," he replied quietly. "Sif was right. I'm young, and for the first time in weeks, I feel young."

"So..." Urd began. "Why don't you keep at it?"

"Huh?" he asked, turning to her.

"Ask Hotaru if you can join the Aeronautics Club. They offer a discount on flight school for members."

The boy chuckled and shook his head. "Even with a discount it's expensive," he told her.

"I'll help," she said suddenly.

He turned back to her again, wondering if he heard right. "Huh?"

"Well, I'm going to be making more money now that I have a contract," she told him. "And it _is_ my job to make you happy, right? So why not?"

"Urd," he whispered.

She smiled at him. "You're happy right now, Keiichi," she told him. "That's worth holding onto. Besides, if you get bored with it and quit, no real loss."

He shook his head. "Urd, I couldn't..."

"Keiichi, dammit, drop the mortal nobility for a minute, okay?" she ordered. She caught his gaze in hers and pressed. "You took care of my sister. You made her happy and you didn't really have to. Just call it Karma paying you with interest and drop it, all right?"

His smile broadened. "Doing something nice, Urd?"

She grumbled. "Picked up some bad habits from you," she said.

He rose to his feet. "Let's go party."

"Now you're talking good sense!" she announced.

"Where's Sif?" he asked.

"She took Stringfellow and went on ahead," Urd told him.

"Oh," he said. He waved for her to follow him. "I'll give you a ride. Come on."

He lead her out to the Beemer and had mounted it before he realized his mistake. His face pinched in self reproach.

"Oh, jeez," he said. "I forgot I disconnected the side..." He broke off as he felt the bike shift and found Urd sitting side-saddle behind him.

"Okay," she said. "Ready."

He blinked. "Um... Belldandy usually only rode in the side-car," he told her.

She smiled. "And I keep telling you," she said with a flavor of mock reproach. "I'm not Belldandy."

A smile slowly spread over his face. "No," he said, starting the Beemer's engine. "You certainly aren't."

They pulled out of the parking lot and started down the utility road toward the main boulevard. It was a nice evening. The sun had only gone down a few minutes before, a sliver of pink was still visible over the city.

A sudden impulse took him, and he turned his head to address the goddess sitting behind him. "You wanna go for a ride?" he said loud enough for her to hear him over the Beemer's engine.

"Sure!" she replied, her hair whipping in the air behind them.

He turned down a side street that skirted the river and cruised for awhile, watching the lights on the boats off the riverbank as they bobbed up and down.

There was a sudden turn and, momentarily thrown off-balance, Urd reached out and grabbed his jacket to steady herself. She held on as Keiichi steered the bike past the docks.

_No wonder Belldandy likes this,_ Urd thought to herself. The goddess felt pretty proud of herself after the day she had. She had a steady job, and it looked like her offer to Keiichi was the exact right thing to say. She might not be able to cook or clean well, but Keiichi was happy, at least for the moment.

And for the moment, that was enough.


	6. On a Dime

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine. Teletha, Chidori and Sousuke aren't either.

This one goes out to David Uzumaki.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 6**

**On a Dime**

"Thank you," Belldandy whispered, and Urd could almost hear the slightest bit of reluctance in the goddess's voice, that genuine gratitude coupled with an intense desire to disapprove of the end results of Urd's actions.

"For what?" Urd asked.

Belldandy looked down at the table. "For what you did for him," she explained. "He was sad, and you made him happy." She bit her lip and looked away. "Something I couldn't do."

"Sis," Urd said with a reproachful sigh. "Don't you dare try to blame parts of this on yourself. We had to make do, that's all."

The younger goddess nodded. "So... that was the start of his new dream, then?"

Urd nodded. "He got a taste, and he wanted more. I'd never seen a guy turn his life on a dime like that, but he made it w..."

_Everywhere I'm looking now,_

_I'm surrounded by your em..._

The older Norn snatched her phone up at warp speed and stood up out of her chair. "Hey!" she said quickly. "No, we're good," she said. It must have been a touch too quickly, because whoever was on the other end seemed to be questioning her replies. "No, I'm fine... Yes, I am..." She sighed. "Look, it's cute that you're worried but I'm fine.... Yes!" she said in amused exasperation. "No, I'm fine. No! There's nothing wrong with..." She threw a sudden look to Belldandy and clammed up. "We'll talk later, okay? Okay..." She threw another look at Belldandy and winced a little. "Ditto. Bye." She hung up and cleared her throat. "Sorry," she said.

Belldandy's face was lined with sadness. "That was him, wasn't it?" she whispered.

Urd swallowed. "Yeah," she said simply. She sat back down. "Where was I?"

Belldandy took a deep breath. She suspected as much. Throughout the conversation, she wanted nothing more than to leap through the phone line and hug him, to beg him to take her back, to leave her sister even though it would crush her. It was the most selfish thought she could ever remember having.

But there was something else about that conversation...

"Are you ill, Neesan?" Belldandy suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Urd replied.

"It's just... he seemed very concerned for you," the young goddess told her, concerned that Urd was holding even more back from her. "Are you all right?"

Urd held her gaze for several moments. Belldandy didn't break hers. She kept her eyes pinned to her sister.

The elder Norn broke first. "The Auto Club hated it," she said. "They saw it as a betrayal."

**_Ten years ago..._**

"You're out of the club," Otaki told him as if from on-high.

"What?!" Keiichi cried. "You're kicking me out?! There's no rule that says students can't be in two clubs!"

"Members of the Auto Club have to be focused!" Otaki argued. "They have to have their minds on their motors and nothing else!" He put his finger in Keiichi's chest. "You've lost your edge, Maverick! You're writing checks your body can't cash!"

Keiichi clenched his fists in anger. "So it's the Auto Club or nothing?! Is that the deal?"

"We can't have our racers having conflicts of interest," Otaki told him.

The boy turned to Tamiya, who, up until now, was sitting in a wooden chair in the Auto Club house, his arms folded over his chest. He refused to look at Keiichi.

"Senpai," Keiichi began. "Senpai... Senpai!"

Tamiya finally turned to him. "Oh, Morisato," he rumbled. "I'm sorry. It's hard to hear you over the sound of your constant team-killing."

Sora looked on in frank concern from across the room, her hands clasped together. "Morisato kun," she began. "Just say you'll stay," she begged. "This club needs you."

Keiichi closed his eyes. "You're all being unreasonable."

"You can't put self interest ahead of your loyalty," Tamiya rumbled. "The Auto Club asks a lot of its members. If everyone left every time they wanted a change of scenery, it would wither and die. We've already lost a lot of recruiting power when Belldandy left..."

Keiichi was in his face a second later. "You leave her out of this!" he hissed dangerously, overlooking the fact that he was talking to a man two heads taller than he was and who outweighed him by a good hundred and fifty pounds. "You got a problem with me, remember? Stay on topic or shut your face."

Tamiya's eyes went wide, and the only sound that could be heard in the club house was the sound of Sora sniffling.

"You know what?" Keiichi finally said. "Forget it. Conversation's over." He grabbed his bag and his helmet and stormed out the front door.

"Morisato kun!"

He turned and found that Sora had run out after him.

"Please wait!" she begged as she ran up to him. "Please don't go," she went on. "They're just upset. They know how big a role you play in this club. As good as they are at fixing engines, they know they need someone like you, someone... someone with an ounce of common sense to keep things from spinning out of control!"

Keiichi frowned, aware that she was trying to guilt-trip him. It wasn't her fault. He understood. The boy bit his lip and tried to think of a way to make her understand.

"Ever since Belldandy left, Sora," he said. "Things have been... different. I've been adrift, being blown about by the wind. I used to know what I would be doing in ten years, and now..." He drifted off for a moment. "Now, it's like the world is trying to tell me I'm wrong, that everything I knew for _certain_ is wrong. That means it's time to know new things."

Sora hugged him. "Then I hope you know the right things."

888

"So you caught the fever, eh, mate?" Hotaru asked with a grin as she closed a panel on the Shinden's engine casing.

"Something like that," Keiichi told her. "I want what you have. I want to learn to fly."

"Well, we do need new members," she said as she put a wrench back into a big, red tool box. "Busiest time of year for us is coming up."

He blinked. "Summer?"

She grinned. "Air show season, mate. Every year the club goes from air show to air show, selling concessions to raise money for next year. Other clubs have it easy. Their dues have to cover baking supplies or in the case of Auto, tools and oil and such. We have to afford avgas, custom tools, electronics, the works. But this year..." She grinned and patted the Shinden affectionately. "After this year, we'll never have to worry about it again."

"Why?"

"We're taking the old girl on the road with us," Hotaru explained. "The dean has approved of us forming a Shinden demonstration team. Sponsors will pay us to go to these shows and fly."

"That's great," Keiichi agreed. "So, can I help?"

"There's an academic requirement," she told him. "You have to be taking an aviation-related class."

"I was thinking about that anyway," he said.

Hotaru looked over his shoulder and raised her voice. "Oi, prick!" she called out.

One of the club members yelled back. "What?!"

"Hey, were you the one talk'n about an intro to aviation maintenance class next fall?!" she yelled back.

"So what if I did?!"

"Don't be a yobbo, mate!" she called back. "You know the prof! Are they still going to offer it?!"

"Yeah!" he called back. "In the fall!"

She turned back to Keiichi. "Well there you go, mate. Just sign up for that and you're good. We could use the help."

"What kind of help?" he asked.

"Can you double-clutch?"

888

"I don't see the stigma," Sif sniffed. "Those nerds were positively delightful, I'll have you know!"

Standing next to her at the kitchen counter, slowly trying to cut a potato into even slices, Urd shook her head. "Almighty best and greatest, you really are like Belldandy," she said. "She was into nerdboys too."

"They were polite and well-mannered and had a great deal to say," Sif told her as she peeled another potato.

"Oh, I bet," Urd said, rolling her eyes. "Star Trek or Quest and Corridors?"

"We had time to discuss both!" Sif retorted defensively.

Urd shook her head.

Sif decided to change the subject. "You know, you don't have to help," she said. "I can cook this myself."

"Yeah, well, I'm supposed to be _learning_, remember?" Urd told her. "Gotta start somewhere, I guess."

"I see," Sif replied.

They heard the door open and shut and watched Keiichi walk into the kitchen, heading straight for the refrigerator.

"Hello, Keiichi sama," Sif said. "How was your day?"

"The Auto Club kicked me out," he replied casually as he emerged from the bowels of the ice box with a soda.

"You're kidding!" Urd responded in shock. "You're the only one there who can go a week without going before a judge, and they kicked you out!?"

"I'm so sorry, Keiichi sama," Sif offered sympathetically.

He shrugged. "All this tells me is that the universe wants me to do something different. And, it looks like we get to travel this summer."

"Travel?" Urd asked.

He gave them a rundown on Hotaru's plan to fly at different air shows this summer to raise money for the club and his intention to drive for them.

Sif raised a finger. "And how are you going to do that exactly when Urd can't go with you?"

Keiichi blinked. "Huh?"

"Urd has a job now," Sif explained. "She can't just leave whenever she wants. And you two can't be separated."

The boy smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. "System Force! Dammit!"

He growled low in his throat. There had to be a way around this.

Urd smiled. "You know what? Maybe there's a way."

888

"Sponsor?" Teletha repeated, blinking at the goddess in confusion.

"Yeah," Urd went on, crossing her legs in the seat across from Teletha's desk. "Big, prestigious companies do it all the time. It's a good way to get the name brand out there. And since Keiichi and I are going to be out there anyway, we can pass out brochures and coupons."

"Hmmm," Teletha mused, sitting down at her desk. "I suppose it bears thought, but an airplane?"

"Think of it as virgin territory!" Urd enthused.

The CEO didn't look convinced. Urd started to sweat. If Teletha didn't go for this, she wouldn't have a choice. Either Keiichi would have to quit the Aeronautics Club and give up flying or she would have to quit her job, and Keiichi would still have to give up flying. The System Force wouldn't let them stay apart that long.

_You would think just once the System Force would play on _our_ team for a change,_ she fumed to herself.

Teletha sighed. "I'm sorry, Urd. I think you're on the right track, but..."

The intercom buzzed, interrupting her denial. Teletha hit the answer button with a perfectly-manicured finger. "Yes?"

"Ms. Tessatarossa? Kanami Chidori is here to see you."

Urd saw a flash of annoyance cross the woman's face. "Friend of yours?"

"She's the owner of Chidori's Secret," Teletha told her. "She used to be my partner." She hit the respond button. "Send her in, please."

The door opened, and a blue-haired woman in a blue business skirt entered followed by a man in a grey suit with brown, unkept hair. Teletha saw him and turned a whiter shade of pale.

"Tessa, how are you?" the woman asked, shaking her hand.

"I'm very well, Chidori san," Teletha told her with a forced smile. "How's business?"

"Oh, it's outstanding!" Chidori gushed. "Oh, you know Sousuke, right? He's been handling my security ever since a run-in I had with a stalker."

Teletha swallowed. "Yes... Actually, I do." She turned sad eyes toward the man. "Sagara san, I heard you were leaving to take a new job, but I had no idea..."

"The compensation package Chidori san offered was impressive," the man told her in clipped tones.

Teletha's hands curled into fists. "I see... Including fringe benefits?"

Chidori interrupted before Sagara could answer. She bowed to Urd. "I recognize you. You were on last week's catalogue cover."

Teletha intervened before Urd could answer. "This is our new top model," Teletha told her. "Urd Morisato."

"It's nice to meet you," Chidori said with a bright smile. Turning on a dime, her face turned deadly serious. "Double whatever she's paying you."

Urd blinked. "Um... what?"

"What?!" Teletha piped in.

"Whatever she's paying you, I'll double it," Chidori repeated.

Teletha stepped between them, facing off with Chidori. "Morisato san is a serious model and has no time to hock another organization's hoochie mama club wear!" she said. "Now, if you will get to the point of your visit..."

Chidori smiled again. "I just wanted to invite you to the grand opening of our new store," she said, handing the woman a flyer. "We're not just selling to retail outlets or online anymore. We have a brick and mortar establishment."

"You opened your own store?!" Teletha cried.

"Only during the day," Chidori corrected. "At night, we pull the inventory in the back and reopen it as a night club."

"A night club?! This must have cost a fortune!" Teletha cried in utter shock.

"Well, you know," Chidori brushed the comment off. "When you're doing as well as we are, you can afford a few experiments. You know what I mean," she said with a condescending grin.

Teletha squeezed her hands into fists again, so hard that her perfect nails drew blood. She suddenly stood a little straighter and smiled. "As a matter of fact, I know exactly what you mean!"

"You do?" Chidori asked.

"Of course!" Teletha replied. "We're actually looking at opening our marketing strategy to a new demographic! We're sponsoring an airplane demonstration team!"

"You are?" Chidori queried.

"You are?" Urd asked, blinking.

"Indeed," Teletha confirmed. "You know, like the Red Angels or the Snowflies. We expect to get a lot out of it. Morisato san here is in charge of it."

"She is?"

"I am!?"

"She is, and you are," Teletha answered both questions. "We're expecting big things! Big things! So," she summed up, handing Chidori's flyer back. "I hope you'll join us at the next aeriel parade!"

Chidori cleared her throat and forced a smile. "We'll pencil it in. Well, look at the time! We have to go! Come along, Sousuke."

Urd watched the two leave and turned back to Teletha. "So... you're in?"

The silver-haired woman grit her teeth. "We're in."

Urd folded her arms over her chest. "And double pay for me?"

Teletha sighed. "And double pay for you," she yielded.

888

As Urd was dealing with Teletha and Chidori, Keiichi stood outside Skuld's door. He took a breath, bracing himself for a confrontation even though he knew that was the wrong thing to do. Raising his hand, he knocked twice.

"Skuld?" he called. "Are you in there?"

The door flew open, and Skuld's irate expression flashed before his eyes.

"What do you want, Keiichi?" she asked.

"I was just wondering how you were doing," he said. "I haven't seen you in awhile, and I just wanted to..."

"I'm fine," she said. "And I'm very busy."

"Busy with what?" he asked, leaning to the right to look over her shoulder into her lab.

She moved to the left and blocked him. "Busy on my invention! A great invention! One that's going to get Oneesama back! And I'm very busy. After all... I have to... add dilithium to the warp core... and... um... find the one point twenty-one jigawatts of electricity to make the flux capacitor work... and... and..."

Keiichi watched her flail, feeling a pang of sympathy. "Skuld..."

"And that FTL drive isn't going to spin up itself!" she cried defensively.

"Skuld..." He kept his eyes locked on hers. He had seen a lot of emotion in those eyes over the last few weeks, but for the first time, he was seeing something else; abject despair.

She lowered her gaze to the floor and took a step back, leaving the door open, a silent invitation to follow her. He stepped inside, his eyes going straight to the center of her lab where sat...

...absolutely nothing.

"I've got nothing," she whispered from his right. Her hands were clenched into fists, tears falling from her eyes. "I've been in this lab for weeks... trying to come up with something to build that could rescue her... and I've got _nothing_."

"Skuld," he whispered. He knew the young goddess was depressed and angry about Belldandy, but he never knew...

She started to sob. "I've got _NOTHING!_" she screamed.

"Oh, come on, Skuld," he said, resting a hand on her shoulder and smiling for her benefit. "So it's taking some time. That's all. Something will come to you."

She wiped her eyes. "Oh, sure," she said. "Time. We all have time. We're all going to go on with our lives until we can figure something out, but what about me? Without Oneesama... I mean... without Oneesama... I shouldn't even be here."

"That's not true," he said quietly. "You're part of our family, Skuld. You're part of what makes this place special. And I have faith in you. I know with a little time, you're going to come up with something to help save her. You know what? I bet you already have. Like that thing." He pointed at something on her work bench.

"That's my bento box, Keiichi, you idiot," she said, wiping her eyes.

"Oh, well, how about that?" he pointed to a maze of wires next to it.

"That's the TV remote. I broke it to tick off Urd," she said. She smiled. "Yeah, that was classic."

Keiichi smiled and pointed to the next item on the table, a large metal case with wires leading out of it. "Well, I know that's something that can help if we can figure out a good way to use it."

"No, Keiichi," she sighed. "That's just a hydrogen bomb."

"Well, what about the thing ov..." He broke off and slowly turned to her. "Um... wait. What?"

"That? That's my new three-million gig iPod," she said.

"No! I mean the other thing!" he cried.

"What? My hydrogen bomb?"

"Don't say it out loud! It might go off!" he cried.

She gave him an irritated look. "Keiichi, you can't detonate it just by saying 'hydrogen bomb,'" she said.

"Oh..."

"You have to say the secret code word," she explained.

"Code word?" he asked.

"Yes," she said as if talking to a dim child. "The code word."

He suddenly clammed up. "What if I accidentally say the code word?" he asked.

"That's highly unlikely," she said.

"But there's a chance! Skuld, what if it's a word I use without even thinking?!"

"Fine! Fine!" she cried. "The code word is 'buttercup,' so whatever you do, don't..." She broke off as the metal box whirred to life and a digital clock on the front started to countdown from five minutes. She clenched her eyes shut in self-reproach. "Oh, man, I walked right into that one..."

Keiichi turned white and fainted.

"Hey!" Skuld cried, giving him a kick. "Get up!"

She kicked him again, and his eyes fluttered open. "Oh my goddess!" he whispered. "What do we do?"

"We could try to get out of range!" Skuld cried.

"What's the range?" he asked as he stood up again.

"Sixty miles!"

He looked at the clock, which just passed four minutes. "I don't think we're going to make it quite that far."

Skuld ran up to it and examined it.

"Can you defuse it?" he asked.

"Defusing it easy," she said. "Just cut the green wire and then the red wire. That part's easy."

"So what's the hard part?" he asked.

"The case is tamper-proof," she said. "I can't even get to the bomb itself!"

"So now what?"

She bit her lip and nodded. "I'm going to run the hot water in the bath and get the hell out of here!"

"Skuld!"

Her eyes went wide. "That's it!" She turned to him. "Keiichi! Go to the bathroom and run the hot water!"

"You can't just leave!" he cried.

"Trust me!" she implored.

He pursed his lips and nodded. "Okay," he said. He dashed out of the room.

Skuld pulled out a multi-tool and unscrewed the bomb from its mountings on the table.

Meanwhile, Keiichi was running the tub faucet, the hot water lever turned all the way open. Keiichi watched the water slowly fill the tub as he willed it to go faster. "Come on, come on," he groaned.

He turned just in time to see Skuld enter the bathroom, struggling to carry the large bomb. She pushed the metal box into his arms.

"Here, hold this," she ordered. Keiichi turned white as the LED clock glowed up at him, telling him he had just under sixty seconds to live.

Skuld leaned over the tub and touched the water, which began to glow a bright blue. She turned back to him. "Keiichi! Throw it in!"

"What?!" he demanded. "Where does it go!?"

"Here's a hint! _Not here!_" she retorted.

Keiichi hesitated, but only for a second. Trusting Skuld, he leaned over and dumped the bomb into the glowing water where it disappeared. The glow disappeared, revealing only an empty tub.

Skuld sighed in relief.

Realizing he was still alive, Keiichi started to calm down. "So... where did it go?" he asked her quietly.

"Away," she answered.

His eyes narrowed. "You're not going to tell me."

"It would just make you nervous," she said. The goddess looked up at him. "Keiichi... I'm sorry. I've been... I mean..."

"It's okay, Skuld," he said, kneeling next to her. "I'm sorry too. I guess things hit me so hard, I forgot you were hurting too."

She didn't reply, looking down at the bathroom tile instead.

"But I'm going to make you a promise," he said. "From now on, we're all a family, okay? Belldandy's family. And we're going to be there for you."

Skuld looked up at him with moist eyes. "Okay," she said. "And I'm going to keep working on that invention. I'm going to come with something to save Oneesama. I promise you that!"

888

"Holy dooley!" Hotaru cried. "You're kidding me!"

"No, I'm not," Keiichi told her quickly, looking over his shoulder and out the hangar's double doors. "As a matter of fact, Urd said she was so excited by the idea, she wanted to come right down and talk about it."

"A sponsor!" Hotaru repeated, shaking her head. "Fair suck of the sav!" She turned to the rest of the Aeronautics Club working in the hangar. "Listen up, blokes!" she cried. "We got big money coming to visit! Everyone wash your hands and look respectable!"

As she said this, a limousine pulled up to the front of the hangar and stopped. Hotaru quickly turned and zipped her flight suit all the way up.

"Keiichi, mate, if you've really pulled this off, your first three flight lessons are free," she whispered as Urd and Teletha stepped out of the limousine. "Holy dooley, she even looks rich."

She clammed up and smiled as Urd walked up to them. "Teletha, this is Hotaru Woodward, the Aeronautics Club's president and my friend, Keiichi."

"How do you do?" Teletha greeted her, smiling warmly as she bowed.

"G'day!" Hotaru replied excitedly.

"Morisato san has told me a lot about your club and your summer plans," Teletha told her. She looked over her shoulder and saw the Shinden. "Is that it?"

"Oh, too right," Hotaru told her. "Just finishing up a little work on her. Been busy as a cat burying shit working on her throttle assembly but she turned up apples."

Teletha blinked. "That's... good?"

"Well, we wanted to make sure she was ready for you to see," Hotaru told her. "The boys ha'been grinning like shot foxes ever since we heard you were coming."

"Well... that's... that's wonderful," Teletha said with a smile. She turned to Urd and mouthed the words, "what did she say?!"

Urd decided to intervene, pushing her way between them. "Now, just imagine it, Teletha," she said, putting her arm around the CEO's shoulder as the walked toward the Shinden. "A warm, summer day. A crowd of... what?" She turned back to Hotaru for a number.

"Two hundred thousand, sometimes," the pilot supplied.

"Two... hundred..._ thousand_," Urd reiterated into the woman's ear. "Two hundred thousand people, their eyes all fixated on this one-of-a-kind machine as it passes in front of them, wowing them with aerobatics the likes of which they've never seen. And as Hotaru makes her final pass, approaching from the right, she rolls a little to the left, to wave at the crowd... then a little to the right..." She held her hand out in front of them and rotated it. "And under the wings, in bright letters... the Whispers website... Two hundred thousand people..."

Teletha looked up at the airplane, her eyes alight with the possibilities. "Our models could pose for pictures," she said.

"I certainly intend to be there," Urd said.

The CEO turned to Hotaru. "Is it fun?" she asked, nodding toward the Shinden.

Hotaru grinned at her. "The most fun a girl can have with her clothes on."

Teletha turned back to the Shinden. "I wanna try it!"

Keiichi, who had seen first-hand Hotaru's flying, raised a nervous finger. "Is that such a good idea?"

"It'll be a rip snorter of a time!" Hotaru assured him. "We'll get you a flight suit!"

"Seriously, maybe we should rethink this," Keiichi opined.

They ignored him, rushing Teletha to the bathroom where she could change. One of the maintenance techs, a junior named Jiroo, stepped up to Keiichi and shook his head.

"So much for that," he sighed. "Razor will shake her like a martini."

888

Keiichi flinched as he watched the Shinden do a sudden snap roll to the left then pull into a hard vertical climb. It was almost as if Hotaru was trying to make the young businesswoman puke.

Standing next to him on the tarmac, Urd grinned. "That looks _fun!_"

The boy gave her a sympathetic stare. "You don't think she'll fire you, do you?"

"I'm sure it'll be okay," she said. At that moment, the Shinden seemed to spin out of control, plummeting toward the earth, only to recover at the last moment and buzz over their heads.

Urd was silent a moment. "You don't think Sif threw out the want-ads, do you?"

It seemed that Teletha had had enough because the Shinden lowered her landing gear and descended toward the runway. Touching down, it slowed and turned on to the apron, heading for the hangar. Jiroo stepped up next to Urd and Keiichi, a bucket and mop in his hands.

The plane came to a halt in front of them, and the Shinden's turboprop spun to a stop. The canopy popped open, and Hotaru climbed out, turning to help Teletha out of the rear seat.

Keiichi and Urd both blinked as the sound of laughter floated across the tarmac and into their ears. Hotaru hopped down and turned to help the CEO. Teletha hopped nimbly down, and suddenly lost her balance, nearly striking the ground, but Hotaru caught her. She was still laughing.

"That... that was the most fun I've ever had!" Teletha cried as Hotaru helped her toward the hangar. "That was better than a roller coaster! Better than _sex_!"

Keiichi and Urd watched as the two walked into the hangar like old friends.

"You don't think the System Force is helping this along, do you?" Keiichi asked her seriously.

"Hell, Keiichi, if it is, I owe it a beer," she told him. "Come on."

The two followed the women into the hangar. Teletha had calmed down and was taking a checkbook from her administrative assistant. "Hotaru san, I think we can work together."

"Too right, mate," Hotaru told her.

"There's just one thing I'd like you to do in addition to the things already discussed," Teletha told her.

"Oh?"

Teletha smiled. "I want you to wear our products when you perform."

The pilot turned red. "Sorry? What?"

"I want to really get the most out of this sponsorship," Teletha told her. "And I think a woman like you, a no-nonsense, daredevil pilot like you could really sell our lingerie. I want you to wear it in the cockpit so we can truthfully say that you do."

Hotaru turned crimson. "But... I still get to wear something _over it_, right?"

"Oh, of course!" Teletha assured her.

The aerobat sighed in relief. "Spiffy. Still... lacy... things... while I fly?"

Teletha handed her a check. Hotaru read it, and her eyes went wide. Reaching out, she grabbed Jiroo by the front of his coveralls.

"Tell Toshio to paint this website on the bottom of the plane!" she ordered fiercely. "Now! Right now!"

Teletha smiled sweetly. "Does that mean we have a deal?"

Hotaru's eyes rose from the zeros on the check and locked onto the woman, a wicked grin spreading across her face. "Just one... itty... bitty... little concession," she said.

The businesswoman blinked. "Oh?"

"Too right," Hotaru went on. "I want to really make you part of the team," she said. "Get your face out there in a very special way. If you agree to that, we have a deal."

"Oh? Really?" Teletha said with a blush. "I'm honored."

Hotaru grinned evilly.

888

Keiichi shook his head and sighed as he watched Toshio put the finishing touches on his work. Standing to his right, Hotaru watched, smiling, while on his left, Urd nodded appreciatively, giving the painter high marks.

"I cannot believe she went for this," Keiichi told the two women.

"Hey, if I can wear a thong while I fly, she can do this," Hotaru told him. "Fair's fair and all that."

Urd gave her own answer. "I can see it. She's a little... I don't know... repressed... for a woman who makes a living selling sexy clothes. I think this is her letting it all hang out."

Keiichi sighed as Toshio stepped back. "What do you think, Razor?" he asked.

Hotaru looked at the image painted on the Shinden's nose, her grin widening to her ears. Painted on the left side of the nose was an image of Teletha in a red polka-dot bikini, posing sexily. The words, "Tessa's Toy," painted below it.

"Spiffy, mate! Spiffy!" Hotaru cried.

888

Although summer was right around the corner, spring nights still had a bit of chill to them, something Keiichi suddenly remembered after he had climbed up onto the roof and it was too late to go back for his jacket. He didn't mind. He didn't plan on staying up there long.

The sun had just finished setting, and the stars were out in force, twinkling down at him. It had been an eventful week, that was for sure.

"I can feel it," he said quietly. "It's like I changed the course of my entire life."

"Is that bad?"

He turned his head suddenly and found Belldandy sitting nearby, looking out at the stars. For a moment, excitement filled his heart, but then cold reality came flooding back.

"Did I pass out or something?" he asked. "Fall off the roof and hit my head? You're not really here."

The specter turned a sad gaze to him. "I'm always here, Keiichi san."

He turned away, unable to see her and know she wasn't really there. "I don't know yet," he said instead, answering her question. "I doubt the senpais will ever let me back in after the way I left. And there's just something about flying... It's so different from racing, it's..."

"Change can be good, Keiichi san," the specter told him. "It's Creation's one true constant."

"It _can_ be good," he said. "That doesn't mean it is. Adjusting to being without you, for instance..."

"Perhaps," she allowed. "Then again, you seem stronger for it."

He grunted, unwilling to cede the point. The boy bit his lip and turned to her. "God, Bell, I miss you so much!"

She was gone.

He blinked in surprise, as if a hallucination was _supposed_ to be there and its absence was what was unnatural.

"Hey!"

The former racer turned and found Urd stepping away from the ladder and starting toward him, a bottle of sake in her hand.

"Hey," he replied, quickly turning to wipe the tears from his eyes.

"What are you doing up here?" she asked, plopping down on the roof next to him.

"Just thinking," he answered.

"'Bout what?" she asked, taking a pull from the bottle.

Keiichi took a moment to collect his thoughts before answering. "Life, I guess," he answered. "How it changes so fast. How removing one person from the house can alter the way things are. How a chance encounter with a woman who tried to beat the crap out of me can become an opportunity."

"How getting thrown out of a newspaper publisher's office can solve more problems than it causes?" Urd asked with a smile. She shrugged. "Maybe." She offered him the bottle. "Here. You're getting philosophical."

He took the bottle and looked down at it. The boy didn't want to think that drinking solved problems. He never bought into that... then again...

Raising the bottle to his lips, he suddenly froze. He lowered it and started to chuckle, just loud enough for Urd to hear.

"What?" she asked with a smile.

He shook his head. "Nothing."

"Don't lie," she said. "Tell me." Her expression turned sly. "Or do I need a truth serum to drag it out of you?"

"I was just remembering," he began, "When Belldandy swallowed that seed of love. She took a drink from my soda and handed it back, and I remember practically losing my mind over the fact she had drank from my can, like if I drank from it, it would be like an indrect, second hand kiss."

"And let me guess," she said. "You didn't drink."

"I didn't drink," he chuckled with a smile. "It fell on the ground."

"And what's the lesson there?" Urd prompted.

He smiled and looked out at the stars again. "Seize the moment," he said. "And don't look back."

Urd grinned and snatched the bottle back before rising to her feet. "None for you. I don't know where your lips have been."

Keiichi watched her stride toward the ladder. "Thanks, Urd," he called to her.

She threw a smile over her shoulder. "Hey, what are goddesses for?" The goddess started down the ladder. "I'm turning in. I got a shoot tomorrow."

He turned back to the stars and smiled. "Yeah," he whispered. "Yeah."

"You're still here."


	7. In Vino Veritas

**Disclaimer: AMG is not mine. The space mummy is ripped off from Sluggy Freelance.**

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 7**

**In Vino Veritas**

"Poor Skuld," Belldandy sighed. "I should have been there for her."

"_I_ should have been there for her," Urd corrected. "I was the one with a choice in the matter." She stood up and walked to the sink, looking out the window. "Thank the Almighty for Keiichi and Sif," she said. "I didn't realize just how alone she felt."

"But she got better, right?" Belldandy asked in concern.

"There were a few bumps," Urd said. "For instance, the first weekend Keiichi and I went to an air show... well..." She paused. "It turns out 'away' isn't all that far..."

_Ten years ago..._

Keiichi closed the doors on the panel truck and turned to Hotaru. "Well, that's everything," he said.

The Australian checked off something on her clipboard before putting the pencil down and lifting her soda off the truck's bumper. Taking a swig, she nodded.

"Looks good," she conceded. "Good thing this one ain't far. Be a good warm-up."

She trailed off as several male members of the Aeronautics Club started toward them, intent looks on their faces. She turned to them and put her hands on her hips.

"What's all this then?" she asked.

The group's leader, Jiroo, stepped forward a touch warily. "Razor, we need to talk."

"Talk?" she asked. "Well then, get talk'n. Got a show to do you know."

"Look," he went on, "The guys have been talking and... well... please don't make us do this."

Razor raised an eyebrow.

"I mean... using our club to hock underwear?" he went on. "It's embarrassing."

"So it's a mutiny, is it?" she asked, taking the soda bottle by the neck and breaking it on the truck's bumper. She held the jagged, broken end out to them threateningly. "All right, then! Who's first?!"

The rest of the club stepped back a pace. Jiroo held out his hands.

"Come on, Razor," he pleaded. "It's not like that!"

"The fuck it's not, whacker pommie bastard!" she retorted. "Come on, then! I'll fuck you up good and proper!"

"Look, we just don't want to be known as that club that sells undies, that's all," he begged.

Razor lowered the bottle. "Look, mate, Teletha is offering us a lot in this deal. We do this, and our club is set for the next year and a half."

"There are other sponsors," Jiroo argued. The other club members nodded. "I mean... what's one benefit, other than money, that this gig offers us?"

"Um... hello?"

The group turned to the open hangar doors where eight of the most beautiful women Keiichi had ever seen were standing. Their leader raised her hand and smiled.

"Hi... is this the Aeronautics Club?"

"Too right," Hotaru replied. "Help ya?"

"Yeah," the woman said, bowing. "I'm Kimiko. Ms. Tessatarossa sent us to go to the air show with you and work the booth. We're underwear models. Is this the right place?"

"You're goddamn right it is!" Jiroo cried, pushing toward the girls along with the rest of the club. He bowed to them. "Jiroo Yamada, Miss," he said, removing his ball cap and offering his hand. "How do you do?"

"Oh, I'm fine, thank you," Kimiko replied.

While Jiroo and the rest of the male members of the Aeronautics Club introduced themselves to the models, Urd pushed her way through the crowd to Keiichi and Hotaru.

Keiichi watched the debacle and sighed. Catching sight of Urd, he shook his head. "I think Tessatarossa san thought of just about everything."

Urd smiled. "She thought the two organizations should be a little... closer," she said.

"G'day, Urd," Hotaru greeted her with a grin. "Thanks for bringing the girls. Should keep Jiroo's mind off mutiny."

"Hey, Hotaru," Urd replied. "Ready for the show?"

"Always, mate," Hotaru bragged.

"No, I mean, are you _ready?_" Urd repeated. Hotaru gave her a questioning look, and Urd explained. "Teletha made me promise to check."

The Aussie rolled her eyes and pulled the zipper on her flight suit down enough to reach up, move the collar of her shirt aside and reveal a bit of lace underneath. "Satisfied?"

"Perfectly!"

"Good! Now pile your girls in the van so we can get roll'n."

888

"I thought we were going to talk about Skuld?" Belldandy noted.

Urd quickly swallowed her tea so she could defend herself. "No, first I want to establish my alibi. I want it on the record that at the time of these events, Keiichi and I were in a hotel room on the other side of the cou... er..." She trailed off at seeing her sister's eyes go wide with shock, anger and despair. "It's not how it sounds."

Belldandy bit her lower lip and took a deep breath, inhaling slowly, holding it for several moments, and finally letting it out.

"I see," she said.

An uncomfortable silence stretched on.

"So... Skuld!" Urd said.

"Yes!" Belldandy agreed happily. "Skuld!"

_Ten years ago..._

Sif hummed as she poured detergent into the washing machine and started loading clothes into it. With Urd and Keiichi gone for the weekend, she and Skuld had the house to themselves, which would give the goddess time to try to connect with her friend's sister. In the past week, Skuld seemed to have improved some, apparently having resolved some issue with Keiichi. But she was still worried.

She finished loading the washing machine and turned it on. Heading toward the kitchen, she heard a knock at the door and detoured toward it. The goddess opened the door and blinked.

The figure that stood there was covered head to toe in white scraps of cloth with what appeared to be a glass helmet on his head, allowing her an unrestricted view of his glowing red eyes.

Sif smiled. "Hello!" she said happily.

"I LOOK FOR THE ONE NAMED 'SKULD.'" he rumbled.

Without missing a beat, Sif turned toward the hallway. "Skuld chan! There's a space mummy here to see you!"

888

Belldandy lowered her tea cup and gave her sister a dubious look.

"A space mummy, Neesan?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I swear to the Almighty, that's how they told the story," Urd told her quickly. "She even used the words, 'space mummy.' I know how it sounds, but I'm not making this up."

_Ten years ago..._

"A what?!" Skuld asked as she rounded the corner and caught sight of the hulking mass of bandages at the door. "Uh..."

"YOU ARE THE ONE NAMED 'SKULD?'" it inquired.

"Yeeeeeeah...." Skuld drawled out uncertainly.

The space mummy reached behind it and pulled out a familiar grey box. Skuld squeaked under her breath and started to sweat.

"IS THIS YOUR DEVICE?" it asked her accusingly.

"Uh... No!" she answered shiftily. "I mean... mine? Why would that be mine? I mean... that could be _anyone's_ hydrogen bomb..."

"LIAR!" it blasted. "I FOUND YOUR NAME BEAD-DAZZLED ON THE BACK!" It turned the box and showed them the bomb's far side. The word, "SKULD" had been written in rhinestones next to a sticker of a wizard riding a unicorn in space.

Skuld was silent. "That doesn't necessarily mean it's _mine,_" Skuld told them. "I mean... there must be a million girls named Skuld..."

"THERE IS ONE! ONE GIRL NAMED SKULD ON ALL OF THE PLANET EARTH!"

Skuld was silent. "Oh," she remarked.

"Excuse me, Mummy san," Sif interrupted. "But could you explain what this is about?"

"THIS DEVICE APPEARED SUDDENLY IN THE SHOWER OF MY SHIP AS I TRAVELED THE STARS," it boomed. "WERE IT NOT FOR MY ADVANCED MUMMY TECHNOLOGY, I WOULD HAVE BEEN KILLED IN AN ATOMIC FIREBALL. MY MUMMY BLOOD DEMANDS RETRIBUTION!"

Sif turned angrily to Skuld. "Skuld chan!" she cried. "Naughty!"

Skuld took a breath and sighed. "I'm sorry. I'll never do it again. I've learned a valuable lesson."

"YOUR SARCASM IS OBVIOUS!" the space mummy replied angrily. "THIS INSULT MUST NOT GO UNPUNISHED! I DEMAND THAT YOU STAND TRIAL FOR MY ATTEMPTED MURDER!"

"Now, now, Mummy san," Sif said soothingly. "I'm sure Skuld didn't mean to try to atomize you."

"APOLOGIES ARE INSUFFICIENT," the space mummy told her. "I DEMAND SHE STAND TRIAL ON MY HOME PLANET OF MUMMITOPIA!"

"_Stop! Stop! Stop!"_

888

"What?" Urd asked, shocked by her sister's outburst.

"Neesan, you're making fun of me!" Belldandy accused her sadly. "How foolish do you think I am?!"

"I'm not making this up! This is what they told me!"

"It's simply... simply..."

"Retarded? Tell me about it!" Urd cried. She rubbed her temples. "Tell you what, let's change gears for a bit."

_Ten years ago..._

Riding shotgun in the truck, Urd watched Japan go by as Keiichi led the Aeronautics Club convoy down the highway. It was a little weird for the goddess, so used to sitting on the sidelines and playing a secondary role in the way things worked for them here. Normally it was Belldandy who played the large role in the happenings in Keiichi's life, but here she was, and it was no conceit to say that he would not be here at this point had it not been for her.

It was almost too weird. As a goddess, she had been a systems administrator, vested with authority over Yggdrasil. She held the lives of mortals in her hand every day, but in this scenario, she only held one, and it seemed to be the greater responsibility.

She turned and regarded him for a moment, deciding that it was her responsibility to check up on him.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

"Hmm?" he asked, taking his eyes off the road to give her a glance.

She shrugged. "Just seeing how you were doing," she repeated. "We haven't really talked in a week."

He cocked his head to one side as if to say, "eh," and continued driving.

Urd saw something there, something in the response. It was very... un-Keiichi-like. "What is it?" she pressed.

"A little depressed, I guess," he told her. "I keep thinking Belldandy should be here, you know?"

"Yeah," she said, looking out the window again.

"It just made me wonder," he went on, "how many more firsts is she going to miss?"

She looked down at her lap. "Quite a few, maybe," she confessed.

"Yeah," he agreed. There was an awkward silence, and he felt the need to fill it. "Look, it's okay," he said. "I know it's hard for you to understand..."

She blinked at the statement. "Excuse me?"

Keiichi wasn't necessarily a genius, but he knew the signs of a mine field when he encountered them. "Um... What?" he asked.

Urd wasn't going to let him go. "Exactly what did you mean by that?" she repeated.

"Look, I know she's your sister, but it's different," he said, downshifting to take an onramp as he spoke.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I don't have an idea of what it's like," Urd told him. Her eyes narrowed. "You know, I just realized something."

Keiichi knew he was in trouble. "Oh?" he asked.

"You really don't know much about me, do you?"

"Of course I do," he replied. "I know plenty. Belldandy talked about you all the time."

"So you know about me through the Belldandy lens," she said. "What _she_ thinks. But you don't really know anything that came from me."

The boy knew there was no good way out of an argument like this, so he decided to punt. "I'm sorry," he said. "I guess I don't."

She bit her lip and looked out the window. She hadn't meant to come off as a bitch, but she didn't like the way he assumed things about her based on his experiences with Belldandy. He didn't know anything about her mostly because he never asked and she never volunteered.

The goddess opened her mouth to do so, but shut it again. There was no need to share. Despite what she had told herself earlier, she had to remind herself that she wasn't really his goddess. She was a stand-in, a place-holder for her sister. He neither wished or required her life story.

She looked out the window.

888

"Right-oh, here we are!" Hotaru announced as she passed out key cards in the hotel lobby. "Flight and maintenance drop your stuff off and meet down here in twenty minutes." She found Urd's eyes and smiled. "Our marketing staff is free to enjoy the luxuries of downtown Shinonome until tomorrow."

The models cheered. The maintainers looked glum, and the girls who worked the control tower looked indifferent.

Jiroo pushed his way forward as the group broke up and headed to their rooms. "What's the set-up, Razor?" he asked.

"Well, mate," she began. "The choice was two apiece in a shit-hole or six apiece in a decent place. I chose the latter."

The young man frowned. "Five roommates? That sucks."

She shrugged. "Sacrifices have to be made. Teletha's not _that_ rich. Although..." She leaned forward and winked. "I went and cut Keiichi and Urd a little slack and gave them their own room. No reason they should have to be split up, if you know what I mean." She nudged him with her elbow.

Jiroo blinked. "They're a thing?" he asked quizzically.

"Of course they are! It stands out like a dog's balls!" she replied. "They live together already!"

One of the models overheard this and piped in. "I thought they were married."

The two looked at her in puzzlement.

The diminutive model nodded. "They have the same last name."

Jiroo arched an eyebrow. "You don't think they're... related, do you?"

Hotaru gave him an "are you stupid?" look. "Right," she said. "The Japanese guy from Hokkaido's sister was born a Norwegian supermodel. That's just genetics!" She held her hands up to call an end to the discussion. "Look, mates, I know when two people are root'n, a'right? Trust me! My instincts are never wrong!"

888

Urd and Keiichi stood in front of the same hotel room door and rechecked their key cards.

"Awk-waaaard," Keiichi noted.

The goddess swiped her key and stepped inside.

"Urd, what are you doing?" he asked. "We have to go to the lobby and tell them they made a mistake."

"Are you nuts?" she asked, flopping down on one of the two beds that populated the room. "Everyone else is stacked six to a room. We caught a lucky break."

He scratched the back of his head nervously. "Yeah.... um... I'm not sure I'm comfortable.... you know..."

She raised her head and arched an eyebrow. "Almighty best and greatest, Keiichi," she swore with a smile. "You make it sound like we've never slept in the same room before."

"True..." he agreed reluctantly.

"We had this discussion, remember?" she asked. "I'm not a tramp, you're not a lech. And I am _not_ giving up a bed and sleeping on the floor like a vagabond." She sniffed and threw her nose in the air. "It's bad for the skin."

He didn't seem convinced.

"But if you want to go sleep with six other dudes, that's fine," she said, hopping up off the bed to peruse the mini-bar. She grabbed two miniature bottles of tequila and turned to him. "Me and my two _new_ best friends, Jose and Cuervo, will just have the room to ourselves."

The boy took a deep breath, realizing this wasn't one of those arguments he was going to win.

"God, Keiichi, just trust me a little, huh?" she implored. She raised her right hand, the tequila bottle still in her fingers. "Fine, I swear I won't rape you in your sleep, all right?"

He replied by dropping his bag on the other bed. "Okay," he relented. "I don't have time to untangle this mess anyway. We're going to the flightline to do a practice run."

"Have fun with that," she said. "The girls and I are going to go have a little fun." She flopped back onto her bed and looked up at the ceiling.

Keiichi opened the door and paused. Turning to her, he regarded her for a moment. "Hey, Urd?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about before," he said. "You're right. I guess I don't know much about you. But that doesn't mean I don't want to learn."

"It's okay, Keiichi," she said. "I'm here for you, not the other way around."

He took a breath at her words, not sure if he approved of them or not. Closing the door, he started for the lobby.

888

"You shared a hotel room?" Belldandy asked. "We never shared a hotel room..."

Urd glared for a minute before rubbing her temples. "Okay, story's over."

Belldandy's eyes snapped onto her in less than a second. "What?"

The elder Norn sighed. "Belldandy, you know how this story ends," she said. "You're going to have to resolve yourself to the fact that this story is going to include things you don't want to hear. I mean, for the Almighty One's love, we haven't even gotten to the big stuff yet."

"I'm sorry," Belldandy told her quietly. "It's just... it's difficult for me. The whole time we were together, we never... we never shared a room or..."

"Did you ever ask?"

The question threw Belldandy. "What?"

"Did you ever ask him?" Urd repeated. "That was always the problem with your relationship," she went on. "You were both always so _passive_." Urd seemed to take greater offense to the statement than Belldandy was. "You were always so content to just let it be, to idle in neutral."

"I wanted Keiichi san to be happy," Belldandy defended. "So I did what I could to make him happy."

Urd rubbed her temples again. "Do you want to hear the story or not?"

Taking umbrage at Urd's accusations, Belldandy folded her arms over her chest and looked away. "Please continue."

"Fine, but we're switching gears again until we both calm down..."

_Ten years ago..._

"Mummitopia? I'm not going to Mummitopia," Skuld stated frankly, folding her arms over her chest. "And I'm not a lawyer or anything, but I sincerely doubt Japan has an extradition treaty with Mummitopia."

The space mummy's bandaged hands clenched into fists. "THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! I DEMAND JUSTICE!"

Sif stepped between the two and held her hands up. "Now, now," she said. "Why don't we all go into the living room and discuss this over some tea?" She turned to the space mummy. "You must be tired and thirsty from your trip. Some tea would surely soothe you."

The space mummy growled. "VERY WELL. TEA IS ACCEPTABLE."

"In_deed_!" Sif agreed. "This way..." She gestured to the kitchen, and the space mummy lumbered toward it.

Skuld grabbed Sif's arm and hissed quietly at her. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "This freak wants to take me away to some strange... weird... freako mummy planet and stand trial for trying to atomize him!"

"Which, in all fairness, you almost did," Sif pointed out.

"On accident!" Skuld whispered defensively. "Now you're giving him tea!?"

"He is a guest in our home," Sif told her with an upraised finger.

"Ugh!" Skuld groaned in defeat. "You really are too much like Oneesama," she said.

"Really? I don't think so," Sif said, her finger at her lip. "I just don't believe it's necessary to be rude to someone without cause."

"HE'S TRYING TO TAKE ME TO MUMMITOPIA!" Skuld hissed theatrically.

"Skuld chan, he will _not_ take you to Mummitopia," Sif said, starting toward the kitchen, leaving the young goddess to blink in shock.

She rubbed her temples in a fair imitation of Urd and growled. By the time she joined them in the kitchen, Sif was pouring tea for the space mummy and offering a piece of cake.

"YOUR OFFER OF FOOD PLEASES ME," the space mummy intoned.

"I'm very happy then," Sif said, pouring some tea for Skuld, who was not sitting across from the space mummy. Just as she finished, she looked up at the clock. "Oh, my! I need to hang the laundry. Excuse me, I'll be right back." With that, she rushed out of the kitchen, leaving the two of them alone.

The space mummy stared at her, and Skuld stared right back. The awkward silence dragged on for several minutes. Finally, Skuld spoke up.

"So... Mummitopia, huh?" she said. "I guess if I stand trial and lose there's a fine or something, huh?"

"IF YOU ARE FOUND GUILTY, THEY WILL JAM HOOKS INTO YOUR NOSTRILS AND REMOVE YOUR BRAIN THROUGH YOUR NOSE AS IS THE SPACE MUMMY WAY."

Skuld thought on that for a minute. "Hmm," she said. "I'm not sure how I feel about that."

The space mummy didn't answer. Instead, he scooped a piece of cake onto his fork and raised it to his mouth. The fork impacted the glass helmet with a soft "clink."

"BY ANUBIS'S SNOUT!" the space mummy swore, dropping the fork in defeat.

This was the moment Sif elected to make her return, walking into the kitchen while humming a happy tune. "How is everything? More tea? More cake?"

"ENOUGH DELAYS!" the space mummy roared, rising to his feet. Stepping forward, he grabbed Skuld's arm and started for the door.

"Ack! Hey! Get off me, you pervert!" Skuld cried.

"Mummy san! This is quite... quite..." Sif sputtered, searching for the right word. "RUDE!" she cried as she followed them out the front door.

"I WILL HAVE JUSTICE!" the space mummy threw over his shoulder as he dragged Skuld toward the flying saucer sitting in the front yard.

"Please reconsider," Sif begged. "I'm sure if you think about it, you will agree that this violent solution is no solution at all!"

"ENOUGH OF YOUR WOMANISH PRATTLING!" it cried.

Skuld dug in her heals, trying to break the monster's incredible grip. Sif, as she figured, was worse than useless. She should've grabbed Banpei when she had the chance, now...

"I will ask one more time," Sif said, standing rock steady in the courtyard. "Release Skuld chan."

"BAH!"

Sif sighed. "Very well." The blonde goddess snapped her fingers, and the flying saucer exploded in a huge fireball, knocking the space mummy and Skuld to the ground.

The space mummy looked at his burning saucer in horrified shock. "MY MUMSTAR!"

Skuld shook her head in awe, and quickly turned to the mummy. "For the record, whatever blew that ship up wasn't mine!"

The space mummy turned his attention to Sif, his eyes glowing with rage. "DECEPTIVE WITCH! YOU SABOTAGED MY MUMSTAR!"

The goddess sniffled, the back of her hand going to her forehead dramatically. "Oh! How... how could you?! I am a goddess first class, commercial license unlimited! Your accusation both hurts and offends me! How can you believe that a goddess like me would ever do such a..."

"YOU HAVE SPACE GREASE ON YOUR HANDS!" the space mummy pointed out.

"Oops!" Sif cried, dropping her hand.

The space mummy rose to his full eight-foot height. "YOU SNUCK OUT HERE AND INSTALLED SOME KIND OF BOMB TO MY MUMSTAR! YOU HAVE STRANDED ME ON THIS WORLD!"

There was silence for several moments. Then Skuld broke it.

"Well, you can't stay here!" she cried.

"Mummy san, we shall make you a deal," Sif told him.

"A DEAL?"

"In_deed_," Sif told him. "If you agree to not return to this world and drop your vendetta against Skuld chan, we shall use Skuld chan's travel medium to send you home."

The space mummy grumbled.

Sif smiled brightly and cocked her head. "Have we an accord?"

The space mummy threw a hateful look at Skuld but nodded. "VERY WELL."

"Wonderful!" Sif replied with a clap of her hands. "If you will go back inside and wait in the bathroom, we'll be there momentarily."

The alien lumbered toward the house, grumbling to itself the entire way. Sif turned to Skuld.

"Skuld chan, are you all right?"

"Yeah," the young goddess said, rising to her feet. "Yeah, I am. Wow... thanks, Sif. You really came through for me."

The blonde smiled. "Of course I did. I couldn't let my friend's little sister be taken away."

"Yeah, but... I guess I should've had more faith in you," Skuld said. "I'm sorry."

"Just make me a promise, Skuld chan."

"Okay, sure," Skuld said.

Sif turned determined eyes on the girl. "Send him straight home. No dumping him in the middle of a sun. No sewage treatment plants. Straight. Home. Understand?"

It was Skuld's turn to grumble.

"Fine!" she cried, stomping toward the house.

Sif followed her with her eyes and smiled.

888

"You're hesitating," Belldandy accused her.

"What?" Urd asked her pointedly.

"You're stalling," the middle Norn said. "That story was, at best, superfluous. You could have just said that Sif got Skuld out of a legal problem. Instead, you spent half an hour talking about space mummies. You're stalling."

Urd cleared her throat.

"You did something," Belldandy told her accusingly. "In that hotel room. You did something that you don't want to tell me. Except that you _do_ want to tell me. You want to confess."

"It's not that," Urd said quickly. "It's that I don't... want to tell anyone... It's embarrassing."

"Embarrassing?" She looked away, her eyes caressing the floor. "Did he reject you?"

Urd stifled a regretful chuckle. "You automatically assume that I did something to try to steal him from you only a few weeks after you were sealed. I told Keiichi you looked at me differently than others. You always defended me, gave me the benefit of the doubt. Have things really changed that much?"

Belldandy looked at the floor again. This time in shame.

"I suppose you have a right to your assumptions," Urd said. "Like you said before, you came home after a day and found your sister sleeping with your boyfriend. What else should you think?"

"Then tell me, Neesan," Belldandy told her with quiet steel. "Tell me what I should think."

"Fine, I'll tell you," Urd said. "I went out with the girls and I got _wasted_. I don't mean tipsy. I don't mean a little drunk. I mean shit-faced _blasted!_ I don't know if it was just my way of letting off steam or if my fight with Keiichi still got to me, but Belldandy I have _never_ been as drunk as I was that night. If I had been mortal, I'd be dead."

The younger goddess said nothing, taking her statement in.

"And when I got back to the hotel, I didn't even know where I was," Urd went on. "And Keiichi was there..."

_Ten years ago..._

It was the thumping that woke him up. He groaned in irritation. The boy was exhausted after the day's road trip and finalizing arrangements for the Shinden. He glanced at the clock and found 3:00 staring back at him. He didn't even get back to the hotel until 10:30.

There was another thump, and he assumed it was the neighbors until he heard the sound of a key card scraping against the door. Then he knew what it was.

Urd was coming in late, probably drunk. He sighed and rolled over just as the door creaked open.

He heard her stumble and the sound of her giggling about it. The door shut loudly, and she responded with "Shhhh!" followed by more giggles.

Keiichi shifted his weight, waiting for Urd to collapse onto her bed and fall asleep. She must have seen or heard him move because her attention shifted to him.

"Hey, handshome," she purred. "I was hoping I'd find you here."

He rolled onto his back, intent on telling her to hit the sack and sleep it off, but just as he did, he felt her weight rest on top of him and her hands in his hair.

"Ur..."

"Shhhh!" she cautioned. "You'll wake my shtepmother," she giggled. "I'm glad you came, Troubadour," she whispered, resting her head on his shoulder.

_Troubadour?_ he thought. _Urd's ex?!_

"I'm sho glad you came," she whimpered. "Shee? You... you don't have ta go ann-where."

"Urd," he whispered. "Listen, you..."

"No... no..." she argued sleepily. "Lishen... you... you don't have to go, okay?" He heard a sob catch in her throat. "I'm... I'm shorry, okay? Whatever I did... I'm... I'm shorry, jusht don't go... okay? Jusht.... Jusht.... don't... I'm shorry, Troubadour.... Jusht...."

He blinked as her slurred speech devolved into choking sobs, felt her tears soak into the shoulder of his shirt.

In that moment, Keiichi was thrown completely off balance, floundering for what to do. It was outside his experience. After all, Belldandy had never drunkenly mistook him for an old boyfriend in a hotel room in the middle of the night. Should he wake her? Slap some sense into her?

She sobbed again and held him tighter.

Keiichi raised his arms and encircled the crying goddess, holding her gently.

"It's okay," he whispered. "I'm not going anywhere."

She continued to cry.

"I... I love you, Troubadour," she wept. "I love you sho much..."

"I know," he whispered. "I love you too. It's okay."

Her sobs started to ebb.

"Urd?" he whispered.

A snore answered him.

The boy took a breath and let it out slowly. "Great," he whispered. "Now what do I do?"

888

His eyes opened, prompted by a sliver of light peeking through the curtains of his hotel room. Urd was nowhere in sight. He rose onto his elbows and blinked.

The bathroom door opened, and Urd came in, her hair and body wrapped in a towel.

"'Morning," she said with a smile. She opened her bag and pulled out a shirt and a pair of shorts. She twirled her finger in the air. "You... um... mind?" she asked.

"Oh," he replied, turning away. "Yeah, no problem."

He stared at the curtains while she dressed, unsure of how to bring up what happened.

"Are you... um... okay?" he asked her. "You came in pretty late last night."

"Yeah," she replied. "I'm sorry. The girls and I went out on the town and got a little wasted. I guess when I got home I hit your bed and passed out. I didn't wake you up, did I?" she asked.

He didn't pause for a single second. "No," he said. "Didn't even hear you come in," he lied.

"Good," she replied. "Okay, I'm decent." He turned back to her, and she smiled. "I'm going to go make sure the girls are okay and get some breakfast. See you before the show!"

"Okay," he agreed. He watched her open the door and step out before sighing in relief.

"_But you remember..._"

888

Urd didn't say anything.

"You're telling me the story," the Norn went on. "Which means... you lied." She looked up at Urd in sympathy.

The older sister looked away, embarrassed. "I remember all of it," she confessed. "I woke up on top of him... and remembered all of it." She wiped a tear away. "Almighty, I was so embarrassed..."

Belldandy regarded her sister carefully, pausing to take a sip of tea and collect her thoughts.

"Has Keiichi san ever..."

"Not a word," Urd replied quickly. "And I don't bring it up," she went on. "I don't want him to think of that as the first time he ever said he loved me."

Belldandy said nothing. There was nothing she could say to that.

"Still," Urd began again after a moment. "I'm glad I remember it. It was the first time I knew he cared about me. Another guy might have just slapped some sense into me or tossed me off. Hell, a prick like Aoshima probably would've screwed me." She smiled. "But he's not built like that."

"I knew that from the moment I met him," Belldandy told her. She smiled at her sister. "I guess you fell in love with him for the same reasons I did."

"Yeah," Urd said, wiping her eyes.

"So, I suppose after that..." Belldandy began.

"... we declared our love for one another and lived happily ever after?" Urd asked, a hint of a smile peeking through her expression. "No. No, there was quite a bit more before that."

Belldandy stood up and went to the stove. "I'll fix some tea, and you can tell me about it."


	8. Responsibility Part 1

Disclaimer: AMG is not mine. Neither is FMP.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 8**

**Responsibility (Part 1)**

"Despite my playing dumb, and despite his never mentioning it, things were a little awkward between us for awhile," Urd continued with her story as Belldandy poured her a cup of tea. She sipped the concoction and closed her eyes. "Oh, I missed your tea, Sis," she said.

Belldandy sat down opposite of her and smiled gently. "Your own blend is quite good."

"Blend my ass," Urd said. "It's Lipton. It comes in little bags." She sighed. "I've never been good at the domestic goddess act."

"You seem to have found skills elsewhere," Belldandy told her.

"The modeling?" Urd shrugged. "It pays the bills."

"You seem quite good at it," Belldandy told her. "I remember how depressed you were when you had to work at the diner. I'm glad you were able to find something you seem to enjoy."

"I thought it was temporary," Urd told her. "I figured when you came back, I'd quit and everything would go back to normal. We found out... well..."

_Ten years ago..._

Urd threw the three hardened seeds on the empty crate in front of her. "As requested," she said. "I trust you'll want to inspect them."

The creature meeting with her in the warehouse wasn't, strictly speaking, a demon, but close enough when it came to its sense of malice. He adjusted his tie and leaned over, picking up one of the seeds and examining it closely.

The love goddess stood off to the side, her arms folded over her chest as she waited.

The malicious creature smiled. "The real deal."

Urd nodded. "Just feed one to the girl and make sure you're the one she's looking at. The effect is almost immediate. Just be careful with them."

He smiled. "Care for one?" he offered.

The goddess grinned. "I'm under a System Force contract," she said. "If I declared love for you, it would probably kill you. It's been a little weird lately."

"No matter," he said. Reaching into a bag, he brought out a black leather-bound book that looked older than the earth itself. The pages were browned and the cover appeared burnt in several places. "As promised."

She made no move for the book. "And the spell we discussed is in this book?" she asked.

"Page three hundred and three," the evil soul told her.

"She's all but immune to energy fields," Urd pointed out.

"Then you're fortunate this spell doesn't include one," the creature said with a smile. "It essentially creates a bubble around a certain area and severs that bubble from the rest of reality around it. You can't phase through it because there is literally no universe for one micrometer on the far side. The only entity that could defeat it is the Almighty, and to do that he would have to create more universe to fill the void and link the two worlds."

Urd picked up the book. She looked up as the creature's cell phone rang. He held a finger up and answered.

"Yeah?" he said. "Sure. McClarens? Awesome! It'll be _legendary!_... Okay, bye." He hung up and turned back to her. "Satisfied?"

"Are you?" Urd replied.

"Please," he said. He tipped an imaginary hat. "Until next time."

She watched him walk out of the warehouse and looked down at the book. If she was right, this book held the secret to rescuing Belldandy.

All she needed was the opportunity to use it.

888

"Ah! Morisato san! Come in! Come in!" Teletha begged as Urd poked her head into the CEO's office. Teletha bounced to her feet and opened a small, cardboard box sitting on her desk. "There's something I want to show you."

Urd stepped inside. "Is it a bonus?" she asked with a grin.

"Better!" Teletha told her. "Well... better for _me_ at any rate." She continued as she opened the box. "There has been a noticeable increase in our sales since the first airplane jamboree. But if we want to get a good return on our investment, we have to take the next step." She pulled from the box a white silk scarf and showed it to her. "What do you think?"

"It's... nice?" Urd replied in puzzlement.

Teletha wrapped the scarf around her neck, tossing the end over her shoulder. "You know, it's like the ones pilots wear in the old movies!"

"I thought you only sold lingerie?" Urd asked.

"That's the beauty of it," Teletha told her with a sly smile. "Lingerie is about subtlety too. It's a perfectly innocent scarf, simple and elegant. But..." She put it up to her face. "It can be a blindfold for more sensual use or... for more daring couples..." She wrapped her wrists in it and held her arms above her head. "Subtlety. I want it to be our calling card. We'll sell them at the next airship magnifico and offer them in our mail-order catalogue. Oh! And I want you to wear one in your shoot with that airplane."

"We're doing a shoot at the hangar?" Urd asked. "With the Shinden? Does Hotaru know about this?"

"She will just as soon as I call her," Teletha told her, passing her the scarf.

"Okay," Urd said. "Is that all you wanted to talk about?"

"Actually," Teletha replied slyly. "There is one more thing..."

888

Cake watched the gaggle of Aeronautics Club members as they jockeyed for a better view of the photo shoot happening at the Shinden and sighed. They were so typical. Sure, Urd and the other girls posing with the airplane were attractive... and scantily-clad... and didn't seem to mind the attention, but really!

She sighed again, and this time her friend decided to take notice.

"What?" the taller girl asked.

"They're such... guys!" Cake replied to the other tower bunny. "It's like they've never seen a lingerie model before. I mean, we _all_ know there's a catalogue in the men's room!"

"So what do you care?" her other friend asked. "You make it sound like you expected better."

"Not really, I guess," Cake told them both. "It's just that... when I joined the Aeronautics Club, I was _hoping_ to meet a future F-2 pilot or some daredevil." She sighed. "And Razor is the manliest one of the group!"

"Well, what about one of the Brothers Z?" the first friend, Kit Kat, asked, adjusting her glasses.

"Brothers Z?" Cake asked quizzically.

"Yeah, those exchange students from America," the other friend. Yomiko, said. "They have red hair!"

"Oooh! Exotic!" Cat agreed.

"Yeah, they're from some really exotic part of America too," Kit Kat added. "A place called 'Mill-Walk-Ee.'"

"Wait a second," Cat said dubiously. "Aren't those the guys who got into that fight over that blonde girl's hat?"

Kit Kat shrugged.

"Well, what about the new guy?" Yomiko asked with a grin as she chucked a thumb to the Cessna nearby. "Morisato kun."

Cake stood up on her tiptoes to see over the crates and into the Cessna's cockpit where Keiichi was working. "The guy with the wild hair?" she asked with a smile. Her voice turned skeptical. "What's his story?"

Kit Kat grinned. "I hear he joined the Aeronautics Club because his old hobby wasn't exciting enough."

"What was his old hobby?" Yomiko asked.

"Racing motorcyles," Kit Kat said.

"Oooh!" Cake replied.

"He looks a little short," Yomiko complained.

"Good!" Cake said, tossing her hair. "That means I won't have to stand on tiptoe or wear heels to kiss him!" the five-foot-even woman noted. "Cover me!"

The student stepped around the crates and sauntered up to the Cessna, taking hold of one of the underwing struts. "Hey, there!" she said.

Sitting in the left seat with the door open as he worked, Keiichi turned and smiled.

"Hi," he greeted. "I don't think I've met you yet."

"Nah," she said. "I'm majoring in airfield operations so I spend most of my time in the tower."

"That sounds complicated," he said.

"Eh, it's okay," she shrugged.

"I'm Keiichi Morisato," he said, holding out his hand.

She reached out and shook it. "They call me Cake."

"Cake?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied sheepishly. "My name is Tara." She cleared her throat in embarrassment. "Tara Misu."

"Did your parents not like you?" he asked sympathetically.

"They didn't know it was a word," she said, rolling her eyes.

He grinned.

She straightened, emboldened by his smile. "Hey, so I was just thinking, you wanna get din..."

Before she could finish, the wing flap she was standing under swung down and hit her in the head.

A moment later she hit the ground.

"Cake!" Keiichi cried, leaping down from the seat. "Are you okay?! Can you hear me!?"

Watching from over by the crates, Yomiko and Kit Kat raced over to them.

"Cake chan! Are you okay?!" Kit Kat asked, fanning her.

The girl's eyes opened. "I can hear bells ringing," she said woozily.

"Come on, Cake chan," Yomiko said, helping her to her feet. "Let's go ice that head."

"Bye bye, Keiichi kun!" Cake sang woozily. "See you later!"

Keiichi watched them walk off and looked up at the broken flap.

"That's not funny," he muttered. "She could have really been hurt. Next time, give me a chance to say no, okay?"

The System Force didn't reply.

888

She found him in one of the Aeronautics Club's other planes. Holding the white silk robe tightly to herself, Urd stepped quickly to the aircraft. She gave the boy a quick wave and rounded the plane to enter through the right door.

The goddess sat next to him, struggling to fit her long legs and white high-heels into the narrow cockpit.

"What's up?" Keiichi asked. "How's the shoot going?"

"It's going good," she said simply but uncertainly. Ever since that episode in the hotel room, she had been careful to tread very lightly around him, afraid to do or say anything that might bring up the experience. She wanted it to pass into memory and die.

"That's... that's good," he said, a note of his own uncertainty entering his voice. "Sorry you have to do it with an audience and all..."

"It's all right, Keiichi," she said with a smile. "You know me. I love the attention."

Silence, one that stretched for an uncomfortable twenty seconds before Urd regained her footing.

"So, I wanted to talk to you about something," she said, an unconscious air of mystery could be heard in the way she spoke. "I think I found it."

"Found what?" he asked.

"The key to making _her_ listen," Urd said.

"Hild?"

"Shhh!" she snapped. "Every time you say her name, _she_ takes notice."

He quickly turned to her. "Wait! Are you saying you found a spell that can hold H..."

She gave him a glare.

"...um... her?" he finished.

"I think so," she said. "This evil, twisted little troll sold it to me for three seeds of love, and..."

"Wait," he said. "You gave someone seeds of love for this thing?" he asked.

She waited for him to get to the issue. "Um... yeah," she said.

"Well... So... this 'twisted little troll' can now make innocent women fall in love with him?" he continued.

The goddess grit her teeth. "Okay, Keiichi. Tell you what. I'll return the book and get the seeds back, and Belldandy can just rot in her seal for a few more decades."

He looked away, and Urd looked down at her feet.

"Dammit, Keiichi, I'm sorry," she said.

"No," he choked out. "No. I'm sorry. You're right."

She looked at him in mild surprise. "I am?"

"Yeah," he said, biting his lip. "Yeah. If we're going to rescue Belldandy, we have to be willing to pay the price for it."

Urd looked away again, wondering how high the price might climb. Upon reflection, she knew Keiichi had been right the first time. She knew what that little urchin would likely do with those seeds...

"So," he went on. "What's the plan?"

"Simple. We summon her, trap her, and make her give up Belldandy," she said.

"That's it?"

"That's it," she confirmed. "I don't like complicated plans."

"Is Sif on board?" he asked.

"Yeah," Urd told him. "I'm not telling Skuld until right before, though. She talks."

He nodded. "Okay. You sure this is going to work?"

She gave him a look. "You expect a certainty?" she asked.

"I guess I shouldn't, huh?" he said.

"Not anymore," she told him.

888

"Ah! Urd san! How was your shoot?" Sif asked as the goddess walked through the door.

"It was okay," she said. "Ready for tonight?" she asked as she started removing the jewelry she wore for the shoot, placing her earrings and necklace in a drawer in the living room.

"In_deed!_" Sif replied. "I'm making a casserole!"

Urd rubbed her temples. "I mean Belldandy, Sif," she said.

"Oh! Yes! That too!" Sif told her. "I admit, I'm a little apprehensive about... well... meeting _her_..." She broke off as she saw Urd staring down at the drawer. "Are you all right, Urd san?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, Sif."

Sif approached her warily, resting a hand on her shoulder. "You've seemed rather... preoccupied lately," she noted. "What is on your mind?"

"It's nothing," Urd told her.

Sif looked at her with a little pity. "Did you and Keiichi sama have words?"

Urd gave her a quizzical look. "What do you mean?"

"The two of you have seemed... distant... ever since you got back from Shinonome a week a ago," Sif shared.

"We're not distant," Urd defended as she walked into the kitchen.

"Did you have a fight?" Sif pressed.

"We didn't have a fight!"

"Are you nervous about Belldandy coming home?" Sif went on.

Urd paused. "No!" she snapped. "Why do you think I'm even concerned about this stuff! None of it matters! I'm the substitute teacher! The second string player!" She poured herself a cup of tea. "It's time for Belldandy to come home. And personally, I can't wait. This System Force, being there for him crap is getting old. And working? Come on. It was novel at first, but now it's kind of a drag."

Sif smiled understandingly.

"I mean, I'm not a babysitter!" Urd told her. "And...and... It's _weird_!"

"Weird?"

The goddess paused and looked at Sif. "It's like... Keiichi is a round hole..."

"That is a very odd thing to say about someone," Sif noted.

"I'm not done!" Urd complained. "Keiichi is a round hole, and Belldandy is a round peg. So they fit together. And I'm the star-shaped peg that doesn't fit with any hole and no matter how much I twist or contort, I can't fit right."

Sif blinked. "Just... just what have you been doing with Keiichi sama, anyway?" she asked, her hand going to her chest.

Urd sighed and rubbed her temples.

"The point I'm trying to make is that Belldandy was made for this," Urd told her. "She's the perfect goddess for Keiichi. She makes tea. She cleans. She cooks. And no matter what I do, I'm never going to be able to do those things at her level and I shouldn't be expected to."

Sif shrugged. "If you assume those are the things that bind Keiichi sama and Belldandy together, then yes, you're right," she told her. "You are certifiably awful in all of those things. But Keiichi doesn't strike me as the type to care about those things." She smiled. "Urd... you've done a wonderful job. You were there for Keiichi, and you never gave up on him. Belldandy will more than approve."

Urd bit her lip. "Yeah," she said. "I'm sure she will."

888

Keiichi had expected something as theatrical as the last time they had summoned Hild. Lightning, stormclouds and thunder, but this second time around it didn't seem as overwhelming. Perhaps his mind was racked with nervousness about getting Belldandy back, but he just wasn't as impressed this time around.

And suddenly she was there.

She stood in the courtyard, sizing them up, her eyes lingering on Sif, the only member of the group she wasn't familiar with. A moment later she smiled.

"Urd! Honey! Snookums! Snickerdoodle!" she cried, holding her hands out for a hug.

Urd left her hanging. Hild sighed.

"Well, don't look at me like I'm frikk'n Frankenstein! Give your mother a hug!"

"You know why we called for you," Urd told her evenly.

"Do I?" Hild asked, dropping her hands as a smile played on her lips. She turned to Keiichi. "And you." Her tone turned sympathetic. "I heard about Belldandy, Keiichi. I'm so sorry t..."

"Don't bother, he knows it was you," Urd told her.

Hild rolled her eyes and started for the porch. "It's not easy having a good time," she sighed. "I suppose you called me here to beg for her release."

"Will begging work?" Keiichi threw at her.

"No, but it would amuse me greatly," Hild replied, her voice dripping with sadism. She leaned against the railing and smiled. "Oh, don't look so sad, Keiichi."

"Is she here?" Urd asked.

"Hmmm?"

"Did you bring her?" Urd elaborated.

Hild smiled and stepped inside the house.

Urd turned to Skuld and Sif. "Do it," she hissed. She turned and grabbed Keiichi's arm, dragging the boy into the house after her mother. "She's here," she told him.

Keiichi looked over his shoulder and found Sif and Skuld rapidly constructing a seal on the courtyard grounds. The door shut behind them, and he soon found himself in the kitchen where Hild was sipping a cup of tea.

She licked her lips and looked up at the ceiling. "I think I prefer Belldandy's blend," Hild announced.

"Let her out, and I'm sure she'll make us some," Urd told her.

"Let's be frank, honeysmack, shall we?" Hild said, leaning against the sink. "You summoned me, and I came. If young Morisato here would like to state his case, I'm listening. Otherwise, I'm not going to waste my time."

"Why did you do it?" Keiichi suddenly asked. Hild's eyes locked onto him, waiting for him to beg. Instead, he continued. "Why? I don't get it. What was the point of it all?"

Hild lowered her tea cup and thought on the question. "Tell me, Keiichi, how does Belldandy's absence make you feel?"

Keiichi decided to be honest. "It's the worst feeling I've ever known," he admitted.

"And does your unhappiness make the people around you happier or sad?" she asked.

"I guess... I guess it doesn't make them happy," he confessed.

"There you go!" Hild told him victoriously. "You see Belldandy loaded one side of the equation with happiness without accounting for the other half. When you add something to one side, you must take away from the other. It's basic algebra. As a result, the equation never equalized. X never equaled Y. Where Y is equal to Belldandy, X must equal... Y-not." Hild smiled at her joke.

888

"Okay!" Skuld announced. "I'm finished with this side!" She hopped up from her side of the seal and dashed over to where Sif was standing.

"In_deed_!" Sif declared, hopping into the center of the seal. She opened the book Urd gave her to page three-oh-three and started to chant.

Skuld listened to the sound and bit her lip. This was it. Everything was going to be okay. Oneesama was coming home.

Around them, the sky began to take on a sickly shade of green.

888

Hild sipped at her tea. "Of course, there are always variables."

"Variables?" Keiichi asked.

The demon's eyes glanced up at him, the light dancing in them. A moment later, that light was gone. She looked to the side as if noticing something happening out of their vision and turned back, a cruelty on her face.

"Oh, nicely done, little one," Hild told her daughter. "I suppose you think you're pretty cute."

Urd smiled. "I guess Sif and Skuld finished the spell."

"A waste of time," Hild told her. "I can leave whenever I like."

"There's the door," Urd told her. "Now let's talk about Belldandy."

"I see," Hild said, casually reaching back with her hand and turning on the faucet. "You really want to see her?"

"Yes!" Keiichi blurted.

The light in the demon's eyes returned just as Sif and Skuld entered the kitchen. She reached into her pocket and produced a small, crystal vial with a cork plug in the top.

"That's the seal?" Skuld asked.

"No, child," Hild told her with a wink. "It's what I'm keeping the seal in." She caressed the glass with her finger, and a tiny pinprick of light appeared at the bottom of the vial, shedding a soft blue glow.

"What is it?" Urd asked.

"Exactly one molecule of water," Hild told her.

"A _molecule_?!" Sif asked breathlessly, obviously impressed. "I've never heard of a seal so small!"

Hild giggled. "It lets her fit in my pocket," she told them with a wink.

Keiichi stared at the vial, his mouth dry. She was right there. _Right there!_

"So, as you seem to have the upper hand for the moment, let's make a deal," Hild told them.

"Fine, hand over the seal, and we'll drop the barrier," Urd said.

Hild pretended to consider it. "No, that won't do. How about this? You drop the barrier, and I..." She moved the vial over the sink and popped the cork. "... won't flush your girlfriend down the drain."

"No!" Keiichi cried.

Urd stiffened. This whole set-up just took a turn for the worse. True, flushing Belldandy wouldn't hurt her, and the seal would still time out after five hundred years... but there's no way they would be able to differentiate one molecule of water from another. Even the Almighty One would have difficulty.

Hild's hand paused over the sink. "Are you sure?" she tauntingly asked.

Keiichi swallowed nervously. "Okay!" he said quickly, holding up a hand. "Okay."

The demon looked absolutely ecstatic over her control of both the situation and Keiichi. She raised the vial and recorked it. "Well," she said. "I hope we're now all better aware of the situation. Make no mistake, children, _I_ am in charge here."

Urd bit the inside of her cheek. This wasn't going nearly as well as she thought it would. She took a breath. "Then what do _you_ want for her?"

Hild seemed intrigued by the offer. "Go on."

"You heard me," Urd spat. "Enough screwing around. Tell us what you want for her."

The demon grinned sadistically. "Hmmmm.... What do I want?" She tapped her chin with her finger in thought.

The grin widened. Urd felt her stomach rise into her throat at the sight.

"I want," Hild began, "for my precious daughter to return to the demon realm with me."

"You want Urd to be a demon!?" Skuld blurted.

"It's time for my daughter to come home," Hild told them. "To learn to embrace her birthright and become my heir." She shrugged her shoulders. "It certainly seems fair to me. One goddess for another."

"That's despicable!" Sif cried. "You can't ask a goddess to do that!"

"I'm not asking a goddess to do that, I'm asking a half-demon to do it," Hild pointed out icily. "And this is a limited-time offer, so what's it going to be?"

_It's okay, Neesan..._

888

Urd broke off and looked at her sister. "What?"

Belldandy smiled. "I understand," she said. "I don't blame you. Sif was right. If you had taken that trade, it would have destroyed you. The sister I know would be gone, twisted into something else." She offered Urd a kind and forgiving smile. "I'm glad you said no."

The elder goddess stared at her for several moments.

"Belldandy... I didn't say no."

_Ten years ago..._

Urd caught Keiichi's eyes and tried to divine what he was thinking. It was hardly a kind offer, and the price was steep. But Belldandy would be home. She would be safe. She would be with Keiichi.

Her thoughts flew back to her discussion with Keiichi. He was right. There was a price to pay, and they had to be willing to pay it. She licked her lips and closed her eyes. This was the price, and the only one who could pay it was her.

She took a step forward...

"No deal."

Her eyes snapped open in shock. Turning her head, she found the owner of the words looking down at his feet.

"Excuse me?" Hild asked with amusement.

"I said no deal," Keiichi repeated.

"Keiichi!" Urd hissed. "Shut up!" She turned to her mother. "He doesn't know what he's talking about..."

Hild leaned against the counter. "Oh?"

"I'll go..." Urd told her.

"No, you won't," Keiichi said adamantly. "We're not trading one soul for another."

"You have no right," Urd bit out from between clenched teeth. "It's my decision."

"Not as long as the System Force says we stay together," Keiichi replied angrily. "I'm not letting you do this."

Urd's eyes were on fire. "Belldandy..."

"Belldandy would agree with me!" Keiichi snapped.

Hild watched the back and forth with amusement. "Would you two like a moment alone?"

"We're not making this trade," Keiichi told her. "And the System Force says we can't be separated. So that's two votes against one."

Urd glared at him hatefully. He turned away, unable to bear the look in her eyes anymore.

"Pick something else," he told Hild.

Hild checked her watch. "Sorry! Offer's expired! Now, I would appreciate it greatly... as would Belldandy, I'm sure... if you would drop your little bubble."

None of them moved for a moment, not until she tapped the vial with her finger.

Sif sighed in defeat and chanted the quick counterspell. Hild brightened.

"See?" she asked. "That wasn't so hard." She started past them but stopped next to Keiichi. Leaning down, she whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

"Your decision does not amuse me," she said. "I really would have given her back. Instead, you chose to spite me and keep my daughter from me. That was a bad move." She moved her lips to barely a centimeter from his ear. "You... will _never_... see her again." She rose to her full height, staring down at the trembling boy. "Good bye, Keiichi."

Without another word, the demon sank into the floor, offering only a last jaunty wave as she disappeared below the floor boards.

No one said anything for several moments. They just stood there, taking in the shock of what had just happened. There was no good way to describe the feelings, just that they were raw.

Skuld snapped first. She turned and ran out of the kitchen, yelling over her shoulder as she ran.

"BAKA!" she screamed.

Keiichi didn't move. He felt Urd step up to him, could feel her eyes burning into the side of his head.

"Well, I hope you're happy," she muttered, turning to walk out of the room herself.

Keiichi stood there, his eyes haunted.

Sif stared at him in concern. "Keiichi sama?" she asked. "Are you all right?"

He took a slow step back and fell to the floor, his back hitting the cabinet. His breathing started to quicken, and his hands went to his head, grasping at his hair.

"Keiichi sama!" Sif cried, kneeling next to him. "Keiichi sama! It's all right!"

"She was right there," he whispered in a haunted voice. "She was right there. Oh... Oh, god, Sif... What have I done?"

The goddess reached out and took him by the shoulders, squeezing gently. "What you had to do," she whispered. "What Belldandy would have done. Sacrificed your heart's desire to save a life."

"She was right there," Keiichi whispered, shaking his head.

"Shhh," she hushed him, pulling him into a hug. "I know. I know. It's all right."

"I'm sorry, Sif," he sobbed.

"You don't have to be sorry," she told him softly. "You did the right thing."

888

Sif found Urd in the Norn's room, working diligently on a reddish potion sitting in a beaker on her work bench. The goddess's face was set and obviously pissed. The blonde braced herself and stepped inside.

"What's up, Sif?" Urd asked, her voice irritated.

The blonde goddess paused for a moment and then dropped to her knees, bowing low before her. Urd blinked in surprise.

"I've come to beg you to forgive Keiichi sama and talk to him," Sif said quickly.

Urd turned away, returning to work on her potion and leaving Sif to sit there. Finally, she took a breath and spoke.

"He had no right to do that," she bit out. "The decision was mine."

"Not in his eyes, Urd," Sif told her, looking up at the other goddess. "Your very soul was in danger, and he knew he could prevent that. At that point, inaction itself became a choice he could not make." She paused. "He saved your life."

Urd said nothing. She shook her head and poured something into the beaker. "He's an idiot," she muttered.

"But a good idiot!" Sif fired back. She rose to her feet and faced the Norn. "It's time for us to face a reality we hoped would not materialize."

"What do you mean, Sif?" Urd asked tiredly.

"The truth is, Urd, you and I will see Belldandy again," the blonde went on. "We've played the game before. We know how it's done. We seal them, they seal us, we seal them again. Five hundred years from now, Belldandy will show up on our doorsteps. We'll hug, catch her up on the last few centuries and things will go back to relative normalcy."

Urd bit her lip.

"But Keiichi," Sif went on sadly. "Keiichi will never see her again. His life is too short. And for the rest of his life, the decision he made today will haunt him." She looked at Urd with moist eyes. "But damn you, Urd, it was the _right decision!_"

The Norn looked away, mulling Sif's words.

"He'll never see her again," Sif repeated. "Or hold her, or speak to her. He gave those things up, knowing what it meant, to save you. Because what Hild wanted from you was worse. I don't expect you to thank him for it, but the very least you could do is not hate him for it."

"I don't hate him," Urd muttered. She sighed. "But I don't understand why he would do something that stupid."

"It would only be stupid," Sif told her quietly, "if he didn't care about you."

"Dammit," she muttered.

"Urd," Sif went on. "He's in pain. Please... _Please_... go to him. Tell him it's okay."

The Norn looked away and swallowed. "Where is he?"

Sif sighed in relief. "He's in the kitchen." She took Urd's hand and led her into the hall. "I know once you two talk, everything will be..." She broke off as she entered the kitchen.

"What?" Urd asked, stepping forward.

Sif blinked. "He's... He's gone!"


	9. Responsibility Part 2

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 9**

**Responsibility (Part 2)**

"What happened to him?" Belldandy asked, concern for a Keiichi ten years removed playing across her eyes.

Urd didn't answer immediately. She walked into the living room, waiting for her sister to follow.

"He was alone," Urd told her as the younger Norn stepped into the room. "None of us could really comprehend what he was feeling. After all, Sif was right. I mean, as angry as Skuld was, at least she would see you again. But Keiichi... He felt as if he had the chance to save your life and he passed on it."

She pulled open a wooden desk drawer and took a framed photo out. Staring down at it, she continued to speak.

"It wasn't until that night that I realized that I was guilty of the same thing I had condemned him for," she said. "I knew nothing about him. I didn't even know enough to know where to start looking for him."

_Ten years ago..._

"Where is he?!" Urd demanded.

"I don't know!" Sif cried in return, reappearing from the hallway after searching that side of the house.

"His bike is gone," Urd told her. "He took off."

"But where?!" Sif cried.

Urd didn't have an answer. She could only shake her head.

"We have to find him," Sif declared.

"He probably just wants to be alone," Urd argued with a shrug. "He just needs some space."

The blonde looked at her as if she had grown a second head. "What has gotten into you?!" she demanded. "For the past week you've done nothing but find excuses to be away from him!"

"I have not!"

"You have!" Sif insisted. "Even now you're trying to find a way to not be near him!"

"I don't even know where to start," Urd growled.

Sif glared at her. "Well you had better think of something," she said. "Because right now you're the one closest to him."

888

Urd stalked down the hall and beat her hand against Skuld's door.

"Skuld! Open up!"

The door opened, and the young goddess stood there, tears running down her face, and her eyes were red and puffy.

"What?" she sniffled.

"Keiichi's missing. We have to go after him," Urd said simply, turning away to leave as she did so.

"Why?" Skuld asked petulantly. "He can do whatever he wants. If he wants to leave, let him leave. Why not? He makes the decisions around here about who stays and who goes anyway."

"What in Hild's name are you talking about?" Urd demanded.

Skuld wiped her eyes and shrugged. "He chose to leave Oneesama in that seal. He can do whatever he wants, right?"

Urd shook her head. "Skuld, listen to me, because right now you're so angry and hurt that you're not even thinking straight and I don't have time to electrocute some sense into you. Keiichi is our friend, and he is missing. We're going to find him."

"Why should I?" Skuld replied.

The eldest Norn had had just about enough. Her eyes narrowed angrily. Without warning, she shoved the door aside and stepped into Skuld's room like she owned it.

"Two years? Is that how long?" Urd asked her angrily. "You've lived here two years, on his dime, pushing your way between him and Belldandy every chance you got!" she cried harshly. Skuld flinched as if slapped. "And in all that time, he never raised his voice to you _once!_ He never got pissed and clocked you like _I_ would have! Instead, he let it go because he believed that deep down what you were doing was out of love for Belldandy! He has treated you like a _sister_ for _two years_ when the smart thing for him to do would have been to kick your spoiled ass out of _his _house the first time you turned him into a woman or tried to sabotage his time with our sister!"

Skuld swallowed and took a step back, fear and shame shadowing her eyes, but this had been building up since Belldandy disappeared and there would be no stopping Urd now that she started.

"So I tell you what!" Urd went on, grabbing hold of Skuld's top dresser drawer. "There's a new woman of the house now! And if you're not going to show a little damn common decency and help me find the only person other than Belldandy willing to put up with your crap, then it's time for you to take your inventions and get _out of this house!_" She pulled the drawer out and dumped the contents on the floor. "There you go! Pack your shit!"

Hearing the commotion, Sif had come running and now stood in the bedroom doorway, watching aghast as Urd pulled another drawer from the dresser. Skuld stood there, paralyzed with fear at the turn in her stepsister.

"Urd san!" Sif cried.

The Norn pointed a finger in her sister's face. "That boy never asked you and me to barge into his life!" she hissed. "_We_ pushed into it! So like it or not, we owe him! That makes him _our_ responsibility! So woman up, do something useful and climb down off the cross or start packing!"

Skuld swallowed and started nodding vigorously.

"Good!" Urd barked. "Now get that robot of yours and get out there and start checking places you know he likes to go to! Clubs, parks, I don't care! Anywhere you can think where a guy who just lost the love of his life might go!"

Urd whirled on Sif, who stepped back a pace in response.

"You!" Urd said, pointing at her. "You stay here. You don't know the area well and he or someone he's with might call. I'm going to go looking for him."

"How will you find him?" Sif asked.

Urd pushed past her. "I don't know," she answered quietly.

"But you know him better than any of us!" Sif argued.

"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIM!" Urd shouted at her.

Sif blinked in shock.

Urd's hand went to her eyes as she tried to calm down. Her argument with Skuld had riled her up, and now she wasn't sure how to come back down.

She lowered her hand and locked her eyes with Sif's. "Belldandy knows Keiichi better than anyone," she corrected the blonde. "I know that he's good with machines and he goes to Nekomi Tech. Just about everything else I knew about him was based on my assumptions. I can tell you where he'd be if he were what I _thought_ he should be. Simple! He's at a strip club, getting wasted and watching naked girls dance."

Sif just stared at her while the other goddess spoke her confession.

"But he's _not_ like that," Urd finished. "And I have no idea."

"Okay," Sif said in what she hoped was a supportive tone. "Belldandy could find him, right? How would she find him?"

"She would do some simple and overly-romantic thing like listening for his heartbeat on the wind," Urd sighed.

"So do that," Sif suggested.

Urd bit her lip. "I can't," she said.

"Why not!?"

"Because I don't know what his heartbeat sounds like!" Urd argued.

Sif looked disappointed. "Then it will have to be done the hard way."

888

Urd's feet lightly touched the tarmac, and she swung off Stringfellow, choosing to walk the rest of the way to the Aeronautics Club hangar. There were lights on inside, so at least there was someone inside who could tell her if Keiichi had stopped by.

If she was really lucky, she'd find the boy inside working on an airplane or talking to one of the maintainers.

She leaned the broom against the wall near the hangar's entrance and stepped inside. There was something going on in there. There were raised voices, a lot of them. Images of Keiichi in a drunken brawl leapt to mind. She walked a little faster.

The goddess came up short when she entered the main bay. Sitting at a folding table just in front of the Shinden was Hotaru and three men surrounded by a few maintainers and several men she didn't recognize. They were all shouting boisterously as the bespectacled man to Hotaru's left tapped a metal bowl with a pair of chopsticks and quickly slammed it onto the table, covering something.

Hotaru and the other three men at the table started throwing money down. Urd jogged over to her.

"Come on, ya yobbos!" she called at them as she tossed another thousand yen on the table. "Let's play some real fan tan!"

"Razor?" Urd asked.

The bespectacled man shouted something in Chinese and lifted the bowl. Underneath was a pile of raisins.

Urd spared one-one hundredth of a percent of her attention on trying to figure the game out. She watched the Chinese man move raisins away from the pile in groups of four.

"Razor?" Urd poked again.

"Just a sec, mate, I'm trying to make a quid." She watched the Chinese man move one more group of four, leaving only two raisins left. Hotaru hit the table with her hands. "TWO! HA! Pay up, mates! Pay up!"

The men at the table groaned and threw their bets at her. She started counting her money. Urd pushed her shoulder.

"Hey! What's all that for?!" Hotaru demanded. Urd responded by grabbing her arm and dragging her away from the table.

"Have you seen Keiichi?" Urd asked her without preamble.

"I did at that," Hotaru told her. "Left about an hour ago."

"What was he doing?" Urd demanded. "Was he drunk or..."

"Nah. He was dry as a nun's nasty when he got here," Hotaru told her.

Urd made note of the qualifier. "But when he left he was..."

"Well, he didn't have the wobbly boot on, but he was he was definitely on his way to getting rotten," Hotaru said.

"Did he say where he was going?"

Hotaru shook her head. "No. Sorry, mate. Got nothing for ya."

Urd ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. "Where would he go?"

"Everything all right?" Hotaru asked.

The goddess paused to come up with a good lie. "He got some bad news about his girlfriend," she said.

Hotaru blinked at her. "I thought you were his girlfriend?"

"No!" Urd cried. "What gave you that idea?!"

"Oh, Lord," Hotaru said, in dawning horror. "You're not his sister, are you? Because that would be just fucking awful!"

"Sister! Thank you!" Urd cried, running for the door.

"So... are you, then?" Hotaru called after her.

Urd didn't reply.

888

"I was an idiot, Sis," Urd told her as she replaced the photo. "I had a contract with him, but up until that night I hadn't really made an effort to make it mine. I spent my time trying to be a crude replacement for you. Like when the lights go out and you light a match. There was no way I could be as bright. I couldn't know him like you did or instinctively know what I needed to. I had to work for it."

"But you put forth the effort," Belldandy replied.

Urd shook her head. "Hild's visit that afternoon was a catalyst," she said. "When I realized he was out there... alone... hurt... his very soul bleeding... I knew right then that what I had done up until that point wasn't enough. You weren't coming back, and if I really meant what I said about taking care of him for you, I knew I had to be and do more." She caught her sister's look and smiled. "No, not that. That was much later. It meant that I had to make that contract my own, put my soul into it. It was..."

The phone in the living room started to ring. Belldandy automatically went to answer it, but Urd stopped her.

"Don't worry. The machine will get it," she said.

Belldandy stopped. Urd took a breath as the phone rang again.

"It was necessary for me to..."

The phone rang again and the machine picked up.

"You've reached Keiichi and Urd," Keiichi's voice announced, causing Belldandy's chest to tighten painfully. "Leave a message at the beep."

The machine beeped, and a familiar voice spoke.

"Urd! It's Sif! I just heard the news! I am _so_ happy for the bo...."

Urd dived across a couch and leapt through the air to pick up the receiver. The machine cut off as the receiver left the cradle.

"Hey! I'll call you back!" Urd cried. "Can't talk now. Bye!"

She quickly hung up.

Belldandy watched, stunned at her sister's acrobatics.

"Sif... seemed happy," Belldandy noted.

"Uh, yeah," Urd said, straightening her dress. "You know Sif."

"What news was she talking about?" Belldandy asked.

"Where was I?" Urd asked, ignoring the question.

_Ten years ago..._

"Urd!" Megumi cried as she opened her apartment door. "You look like Hell!"

The goddess blinked. "I do?" she asked, her hand instinctively going to her hair. "Well, it's been a long day. Is Keiichi here?"

"No, I haven't seen him in a few days," Megumi told her. "Come in."

Urd hesitated. If Keiichi wasn't here, there was no point in her staying. On the other hand, she desperately needed insight into Keiichi's mind, and his sister might be able to provide it. She walked into the apartment and let Megumi lead her to a small table in the living room/kitchen.

"You want a beer or something?" Megumi asked her, walking to the refrigerator.

"No, thanks," Urd answered. "So he hasn't called or anything?" she pressed.

Megumi pulled the top off a beer and shook her head. Her expression started to tighten as she began to catch the worried tone in Urd's voice.

"What happened?" she asked bluntly.

As Urd had noted several times in her life, a goddess second class could lie as much as she liked without batting an eye, and it was a skill that Urd was finding quite handy on Earth. She made a note to synch their stories when she found Keiichi later and just went straight in.

"Belldandy's not coming back," she said quietly. "She's staying in California."

Megumi closed her eyes and winced for her brother. "That sucks," she breathed. "Does he know yet?"

"Yeah," Urd told her. "He knows. That's why I'm looking for him. I'm afraid he's out doing something stupid."

The coed chuckled. "And you thought he'd come here?" she asked.

"Why wouldn't he?" Urd asked.

"Come on, Urd," Megumi said, sitting down across from her. "What guy goes running to his little sister with a broken heart?"

Urd blinked and kicked herself for not realizing the obviousness of it. Sisters talked. Not brothers.

"Dammit," she muttered.

Megumi forced a smile. "If it helps, I don't think he'll do something... _really_... stupid," she noted. "Not like... you know... At least I don't think he would..."

"I need to find him," Urd told her. "Any ideas?"

The girl shrugged. "He's been spending his time at that hangar. He's changed a lot in the last few weeks. Who can say what he does anymore?"

"What if he wanted to get wasted?" Urd asked. "Does he have a favorite bar?"

Megumi shook her head with a smile. "Keiichi isn't a big drinker. If he actually wanted to get smashed, he'd just walk into the first place that came into view. Is he driving?"

Urd came up short. She knew he took his bike when he left the temple. "I think so."

"Then I guess we'll cruise the bars," Megumi said, standing up and reaching for her jacket. "The Beemer is pretty rare. His is the only one in town, I think."

"You're coming with?" Urd asked.

"He's my brother," Megumi told her. "Wouldn't you?"

888

"Well, I did something useful," Skuld said.

Standing in the phone booth, Urd chewed back the urge to bite the girl's head off. Skuld was trying, in her own way, at least.

"What've you got?" Urd asked her.

"I've been scanning the cell phones," Skuld told her. "Listening for any bad news about him. I picked this up. Take a listen."

The phone went scratchy, telling Urd that she was listening to a recording. "_This is Fifty-four, picking up a fare at The Propwash..."_

Suddenly, a slurred, but familiar voice popped in.

"_Holy crap," _Keiichi said. _"It's fifty-five past fifty-four!_ _I gotta go..."_

"_Where to, buddy?"_

"_Home, I gotta go ho..."_

"It stops after that," Skuld said.

_God Almighty,_ Urd thought. _He must be completely smashed if he thought the fare was the time..._

"So he's at the temple?" Urd asked.

"Nope! Never came here!"

"He said he was going home," Urd said.

"You think he went to Hokkaido?" Skuld asked tentatively.

Urd bit her lip. If Keiichi was going home, he could be heading to the airport or a seaport or, drunk as he is, trying to take the cab all the way there. _If_ that was what he meant by home.

"I'm going to The Propwash to try to figure out where he's going," she told Skuld.

"Okay."

Urd hung up without a goodbye. She was still pissed at Skuld. Dammit, she missed Belldandy too, but if she really wanted to honor her sister, she should be doing her damndest to keep Keiichi out of trouble.

She left the phone booth and hopped onto Stringfellow, heading back toward the airport.

888

The three drunk girls were familiar, although Urd didn't know their names. Jiroo called them the "Tower Bunnies," the girls who studied airfield operations by working in the control tower. She also knew that they might have talked to Keiichi.

She hopped off Stringfellow and stepped in front of them as they skipped toward her, arm in arm.

"One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight!" the bunnies sang as they skipped, coming to a halt and skipping in place when they reached eight. "Schlemeel! Schlemazel! Hasenfeffer Incorporated!"

The girl in the center missed a step and nearly fell, but the two taller girls caught her as they all started giggling. Urd sighed. Interrogating drunks didn't sound like the most dependable course of action, but it was all she had. She wished she had grabbed something from her workshop before she left. She had a pill that could sober people up instantly, and if she had been thinking straight, she would have brought one for Keiichi.

"Excuse me," Urd said with a wave. "Have any of you seen Keiichi Morisato?"

The hail brought the three up short.

"Hey!" Yomiko cried out, swaying a little to the left. "It's the super model! Just so you know, my boyfriend is a big fan.... you hussy!"

Urd sighed. "Look, it's important that I find him," she said.

"Did you have a fight?" Cake slurred unsteadily. "I'm not ashking becaushe I hope you break up... becaushe I do... I'm jusht curioush...ya' know..."

"Yeah, he was here," Kit Kat said, actually replying to the question. "We did jello shots together... He was _really_ drunk... I mean, like... seeing things, drunk..."

"Blasted!" Yomiko agreed before leaning against Cake for support. "He kept talking about this girl... Bellbottoms... or something... I think she's in jail... I mean... who even wears bellbottoms anymore?"

Cake looked up at her. "Can I have your boyfriend'sh phone number?"

"Where is he now?" Urd asked, rubbing her temples. "Did he say where he was going?"

"He got into a cab about an hour ago," Kit Kat told her, reaching into her purse. "I think he was going to try to drive himself, but we took his keys."

Urd let out a relieved breath as the girl handed her the keys to the Beemer. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "But did he say where he was going?"

"No," Yomiko slurred. "There was this movie playing on the TV in the bar... something about race cars... and suddenly he said he had to answer the phone." She looked around for a minute. "Is this Graceland?"

Urd ignored the non-sequitur. "Did he say anything else?!" she pressed.

"He seemed really sad," Kit Kat noted. "Said he had to start over."

"Start over?" Urd asked. "What the hell does that mean?"

"In his defense, he was really really _really_ wasted," Kit Kat told her.

The goddess sighed. "Thanks."

The Tower Bunnies started down the road again, and Urd stood there, wondering what to do next. She considered doing nothing. It was within the bounds of reason, after all, that Keiichi would wake up somewhere and come home. Nothing bad would happen. The sky wouldn't fall. The sun would rise tomorrow.

But...

"_How would she find him?"_

Sif's words came back to her as well as her answer. She leaned against the brick wall next to the bar's entrance.

"Start over," she whispered. "Go home. What the..."

"_How would she find him?"_

_I don't know what his heart sounds like..._

A second class goddess could lie. In many ways it was a skill like any other. One that had to be practiced or lost. But it was also possible for a goddess to lie so well that even she believed it.

She looked down at the ground and took a breath.

888

The goddess Urd stumbled down the hotel hallway, fishing her key card out of her purse. The lights were dim, and with several shots of tequila, vodka and a dash of green apple schnapps running through her, it was almost impossible to focus her eyes on anything.

She actually bumped into her hotel room door. She shhh'd it and giggled, trying to fit the key card in the lock.

Why did she drink so much? It had to be stress. She hadn't had a chance to really decompress since Belldandy was sealed. Dealing with that and trying to take care of Keiichi the way Belldandy would have wanted was driving her up a wall.

The door opened, and she stepped inside. Turning, she shut the door, and it banged loudly against the frame. She shushed it again and giggled. Where the hell was she anyway? She'd have to ask her stepbrother to fix that door for her.

Something moved on her bed, and she grinned stupidly. So he came back after all. She knew... well... hoped... he would. And here he was.

"Hey, handsome," she said, sounding alluring in her own ears. "I was hoping I'd find you here."

She could see the shadowy form move on the bed. She climbed in and straddled him.

"Ur..."

"Shhh!" she silenced him. "You'll wake my stepmother!" That was all she needed. Frigga barging into her room and finding Troubadour there. Her stepmother disliked the musician on principle, calling him "essentially useless in most endeavours."

But she supposed it didn't matter what Frigga thought. She rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm glad you came, Troubadour," she whispered. "I'm so glad you came. See? You don't have to go anywhere..."

"Urd, listen. You..."

She cut him off. If he was still leaving and he was just here for a last tumble, she was going to be boiling over pissed.

"No," she said. "No. Listen. You don't have to go, okay?" She felt tears well up and her chest constrict. She didn't know, didn't understand, why he wanted to leave. For the Almighty One's love, he was the only guy to ever look past her heritage long enough to give a damn. She couldn't lose that!

"I'm sorry, okay?" she begged, feeling ashamed of herself for doing it. She didn't know what she had done wrong or was even sure she had, but she couldn't let him leave! "Whatever I did... I'm... I'm sorry. Just don't go okay? Just... just don't... I'm sorry, Troubadour. Just..."

God, she couldn't do this anymore. He didn't love her. If she could just learn to accept that, it would be okay. She'd stop hurting, but why in God's name did he have to come back like this?

She started to cry, hating herself for it. Here she was, begging a guy to stay with her when he didn't want to, because she couldn't keep him, because she wasn't enough for him. That fucking bastard... Why did he come back? Did he _want_ to hear her beg? Did he get off on it?

The thought only made her cry more. She held him tighter. What the hell was wrong with her?

She felt his arms circle her. "It's okay," he said. "I'm not going anywhere."

He was going to stay with her! She held him tighter.

"I... I love you, Troubadour!" she cried. "I love you so much!"

"I know," he replied. "I love you too. It's okay."

She sniffled and held him, but the fog in her mind started to recede only the smallest of bits. Just enough for her realize something important.

_I'm not in Heaven... and this isn't Troubadour... It's..._

Her eyes closed, sleeping starting to claim her. She rested her head against his chest.

The last sound she heard before she passed out was an unfamiliar heartbeat.

888

Urd stared down at the sidewalk and took a deep breath, willing the shame out of her.

_He was there for you,_ she thought. _You've got to be there for him._

She stepped away from the wall and cupped her hand to her ear, sifting through the sounds of life, the heartbeats, of every person in Nekomi.

There were so many. At first, she despaired, not believing she'd ever be able to find one among so many.

And then she found it.

It was there, just as she remembered it in the hotel. She laughed and wiped a tear from her eye. "Dammit," she muttered.

She raced to where she left Stringfellow, snatched up the broom and took off...

Toward Nekomi Tech.

888

She knocked on the door and waited patiently. It didn't take long before it opened and the biggest man Urd had ever seen stood before her. She nodded up at him.

"Hey, Tamiya," she said. "I want to see Keiichi."

The large man rumbled low in his throat. "He won't come down," he told her. "And I can't let you in this manly sanctuary. Them's the rules."

"What happened?" she asked, putting his refusal aside... just for the moment.

One reason she let it go... for the moment... was the troubled look on the grad student's face. Something was weighing very heavily on him.

"He showed up a couple of hours ago," Tamiya told her. "Went up to his old dorm room and kicked Takehiro out." The boy rumbled in concern. "At first we thought he was coming back to the club, ya know? Like old times. But he locked the door and won't let anyone in. On top of that... he's been calling this Chinese restaurant over and over again, crank calling them."

Urd took it in and nodded, having a fair idea of what Keiichi was trying to do. She was going to have to talk him out.

"Let me in," she commanded.

"Sorry," he said. "Rules are rules."

"If you let me in," Urd went on with a grin, "I'll put in a good word for you with Peorth."

Desire flashed in the man's eyes, desire of the heart, something Urd knew well. She knew about the student's unrequited love for the rose goddess.

"All right," he relented. He stepped aside and let her in.

"Which one is it?" she asked.

"Upstairs," he said. "Room two-oh-two."

She climbed the stairs and approached the door marked 202. Leaning against it, she could hear the sound of a rotary phone being dialed. She knocked.

"I'm busy," Keiichi called back with enough hesitation in the words to know he was wasted.

She bit her lip and took hold of the door handle. Channeling some energy into it, she rearranged the molecules, turning the lock into a liquid that dripped down on the floor. She pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Keiichi was sitting on the floor in front of an old rotary phone. On his left was a bottle of bourbon. On his right was a shaving mirror.

He stopped dialing and looked up at her.

"You here to grant a wish?" he slurred.

"No," she told him quietly.

He looked down at the phone and continued dialing. "Then do you mind fucking off for a bit?" he asked. "I'm kinda busssy." He dialed the last number and waited.

"City Wok!"

"Hey!" he cried into the phone. "Is this the Goddess Help Line?"

"Stop calling here, you weirdo freak!" the person on the other end yelled. "I call police! They trace call!"

"Shorry, wrong number," Keiichi muttered, hanging up and starting to dial again.

She knelt next to him. "Keiichi," she said. "Come on. It's time to go home."

"No!" he replied shakily, and for a moment Urd was sure he was about to throw up. "No! I'm... I'm gonna fix thish," he told her. "I've got... got it all figurred out. All Igottado ish...ish... do what I did before. But thish time... this time...." He paused, thinking. "... thish time I'll wish for Belldandy to come... back..."

He started dialing again. Urd rested her hand on his, stopping him.

"Keiichi," she said quietly. "That's not going to work."

"It's got to," he whispered. "It's got to..." His chest heaved, and Urd again thought he was going to throw up, but he didn't. "It's the only thing... left... to try... If... If thish doeshn't... I..." He trailed off, and his chest heaved again, and this time Urd knew it for the sobs the boy was trying to control. "I'm... never... never... going to shee her.... her again..."

The sight of him like this ripped Urd's heart to shreds. Keiichi had always been every bit the optimist that Belldandy was. In his eyes, there was no way he and Belldandy couldn't end up together. To see him... broken... like this was nothing short of soul-rending.

His shoulders racked with sobs as tears ran down his face. "She's... she's gone... I could have... could have saved her and I d... didn't," he sobbed.

He covered his face with his hands in shame as he cried like a little boy. Reaching out, Urd took his shoulders and pulled him into a hug, letting him cry into her shoulder as he had allowed her to do.

"Shhhh," she said quietly. "It'll be okay."

"Oh, God!" he cried, hugging her tightly. "Oh, God, what did I do?!"

She held him tightly, as if he would jump up and fly away if she offered any slack. The goddess closed her eyes and shushed him again like she would a baby.

"It's okay," she whispered. "It'll be okay."

_I'll make it okay,_ she swore to herself.


	10. Don't Stop the Carnival

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 10**

**Don't Stop the Carnival**

"I'm going to skip ahead a few months," Urd told her flatly.

The announcement caught Belldandy off-balance. She wanted to know what happened after the night in the dorms. She wanted to know how Keiichi recovered. The declaration that she would not be allowed to hear this seemed almost cruel.

"Neesan," she replied evenly. "I would like to hear more about Keiichi," she said. "After that night."

Urd bit her tongue, trying to think of the best way to explain her reasons for skipping ahead. Finally, she settled on, "You don't want to hear it."

Belldandy's fingers gripped the table as a very unlady-like anger threatened to take her.

"Neesan," she began again. "No matter what happened or what you might have done, it's okay. I just want to hear it."

Ire danced in Urd's eyes. Belldandy had no idea what she was asking, and was once again making assumptions. "You see, you say that," Urd told her with a little heat. "But you don't really understand what it is you want to hear."

Belldandy listened as her sister continued.

"You see, you're assuming that I hugged Keiichi, maybe we had a tender moment or two, and then he shook it off and went on with his life," Urd said. "What you're failing to understand is just how much he loved you, how much of a role you played in his life, how much of a role he _expected_ you to play in his future and just what your loss represented."

The younger Norn said nothing, chastened by Urd's tone. She rallied a moment later. "Then I want to understand!" she argued. "I want to know those things."

"Well maybe I don't want to talk about them!" Urd shot back. "Don't you get it? You're not asking me to tell you about serving Keiichi tea and talking about his feelings here! You're asking me to tell you about the nights he spent crying, physically unable to sleep due to uncontrollable grief!"

Belldandy blinked as Urd's emotional torrent went on.

"You're asking me to tell you how his ability to take joy in _anything_ utterly disappeared!" Urd hissed. "You're asking me to tell you about Sif physically prying his jaws open while I pull a handful of pills out of the back of his throat with my fingers!"

The younger goddess flinched away, tears coming to her eyes.

"The three months you're asking me to tell you about were a nightmare, Sis," Urd told her. "A nightmare where I didn't dare sleep, and when I did doze off I'd dream of him swinging from a tree, waking up and fearing the worst."

Belldandy covered her eyes as Urd's drilled coldly into her.

"Still want to hear it?" she whispered.

Urd watched, feeling like an ass as her sister cried, hiding her eyes as she sniffled. She bit her lip and looked away, waiting and hoping Belldandy would shake it off in a moment, but a minute later she was still crying.

The elder goddess got up and rounded the table, hugging her sister.

"I'm sorry," Urd whispered. "I lost my temper."

Urd held her while she wept.

"I'm so sorry," Belldandy cried.

"Oh, God, whatever for?" Urd asked.

"Because I wasn't there," Belldandy wept. "I wasn't there for him! His one wish was that I be there for him, and I wasn't, and he..."

Urd hugged her tightly.

_Ten years ago..._

Keiichi listened to the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore as he lay in the sand on the beach. Above him, the stars were shining down on him. He could hear the sounds of animated party-goers behind him, the crackling of campfires and the familiar sounds of laughter.

It was his first time in three months. The first time since that meeting with Hild that he had been at a party or any social function for that matter. He knew he had bombed several of his classes in the meantime, but he had the hardest time bringing himself to care. It was only Urd and Sif's attention that even kept him alive and functioning.

While Megumi and their other friends didn't know the truth, they had nevertheless rallied behind him. Hotaru had put his flying lessons on hold, promising to pick them up when he was ready, and for the first time in a long time, he thought he might be. In the last two weeks, he found himself not dreaming of Belldandy, beating her fists against the inside of a glass prison, but of the sky, an endless blue sky.

He heard someone moving nearby and turned his head to the right as Urd sat in the sand next to him and laid down.

"You okay?" she asked. "We don't have to stay."

"No," he said. "I'm okay."

She smiled a little and looked up at the stars. "Good," she said. "It's a pretty kick'n party."

The corners of his lips curled up. The Aeronautics Club was throwing their end-of-semester bash with an all night beach party. Hotaru had hand-delivered his invitation and even invited the Auto Club to come along. In a way, it was like the party was meant for him. He wondered how much of it was Urd's doing.

The goddess turned to him again. "I was talking to Hotaru," she said.

"Oh yeah?"

She nodded up at the stars. "She said she doesn't usually do it, but it turns out she's not going to Australia this summer and is willing to give lessons. She said if you work hard, you could solo by the end of the month." She turned to him and gave him a long look. "She asked if that was a good idea, though."

Keiichi didn't have to ask her what she meant by that. "You mean she wants to know if I'm going to nose the plane towards the ground and have an 'accident,'" he surmised.

"Are you?" Urd asked bluntly.

He took a breath. "No," he said. "I'm past that now." He turned to her and met her green eyes with his own. "I never thanked you," he said. "You and Sif... for saving me that night."

"You don't have to," she said quietly.

The young man looked back at the stars, feeling the familiar guilt whenever he thought of that night two and a half months ago. It had started as just one more night of getting wasted before passing out for the night, unable to sleep any other way. But this time he hadn't been able to, no matter how much he drank. _Her_ face always waited behind his eyelids. Desperate, drunk and stupid, he took a sleeping pill, then a few more, then a few more... until the bottle didn't rattle anymore...

"Thank you," he said. "I don't think I consciously thought I was..."

"I know," Urd whispered. "We all fall occasionally, Keiichi. It's the ability to get up and fight again that measures who you are."

He smiled. "You sound like her."

"Do I?" Urd blinked.

He nodded. Deciding to change the subject, he turned to her. "Heard from Skuld lately?"

The goddess took an unsettled breath. "Got an email from her," she shared. Skuld and Urd's relationship had become a very tenuous one. The girl-goddess had never really forgiven Urd for her actions the night of the meeting with Hild, and without Belldandy there, she had started feeling more and more isolated. When her mother had told her about an opening at a prestigious school for goddesses with an interest in the physical laws of Creation, she had taken it without argument.

"How does she like school?" Keiichi asked.

"It's not here," Urd replied. "And I think that's all that matters."

"I'm sorry," he said.

"It had nothing to do with you," Urd told him. "Things change."

He took that statement in, noting to himself just how true it was. Their little family had changed radically in the space of a few months. He wasn't the man he was when Belldandy last made him lunch and told him to have a good day at school.

The man sat up and rose to his feet. "I need to find Hotaru," he said. "I need to ask her when she can give me my next lesson."

Urd smiled up at him. "She's over at the campfire telling a ghost story," she said. "Grab me a beer on your way back."

He smiled. "Whatever."

888

"The man held the broken body of his son in his arms and faced the assembled gypsies, who all offered their apologies and condolences," the woman told the group assembled around the campfire. "'It waaaas an aaaccciiiiideeent! Whoooooo!' they cried. And the father said in a ghostly, otherwordly voice... 'Yooooou've gooooot tooo beee fuuuuckiiiiiing kiiiiddiiiiing meeee!' And the gypsy carnies replied, 'Noooooo! An aaaacccciiiideeennttt! Tooootaally!'"

Keiichi sat down at the edge of the campfire circle and watched in amusement as Hotaru raised her hands over her head and made more ghost noises while the Tower Bunnies clung to one another in fear.

"And the father cried out in his pain and rage, 'This caaaarniiivaaaaal blooooooooows! I caaall on Gooooood to cuuuuurse you aaaaall!'"

The Tower Bunnies started shivering in dread.

"And from that day on, the gypsies were cursed!" Hotaru went on. "They were condemned to run their carnival from beyond the grave _forever!_ To this day, the carnival wanders from town to town, searching for place to rest. At night, the sounds of their ill-maintained rides and fixed games echo across the land, and the ghosts of the gypsy carnies reach into the windows of young girls with their small, cabbage-smelling hands, looking for someone to ride... THE ZIPPER!"

The Bunnies screamed.

"SAY IT'S NOT TRUE! SAY IT'S NOT TRUE! SAY IT'S NOT TRUE!" Cake cried.

"That story sucked!" Jiroo announced, followed by a swig from his beer. "You should have just read from a Harry Potter book!"

"Hey! Get fucked, mate!" Hotaru shot back. "You tell a scary story, then! Or better yet, get one of those sheilas you go out with to tell one! I can't imagine anything scarier than being out on a date with you!"

The crowd laughed, but Jiroo took the challenge and started to tell a story. Keiichi managed to catch Hotaru's eyes and the two stepped away from the fire to talk.

"Keiichi," she began carefully. "You're looking good, mate. Having fun?"

"Yeah, I am," he assured her. "Thanks."

"So what can I do for you?"

"Flying lessons," he replied. "I want to start again."

The Australian brightened and slugged his shoulder. "That's spiffy, mate! Spiffy! When do you want to start?"

"Whenever you can." He sighed. "Of course, I've gotta take a couple of summer courses too."

"Well, that's no problem. You can take Intro to Flight and get a couple of others out of the way," she said. "Have you decided whether or not you're going to change your major?"

"I think I am," he told her. "I need... I need a complete, clean break, I guess."

"Spiffy," she said again. "Swing by tomorrow. We'll get you a schedule."

"Thanks, Hotaru." He paused and smiled. "By the way, where did you come up with such a lame ghost story?"

"Lame?! I'll have you know every bit of that story is fair dinkum!"

He laughed. "Sure it is!"

"My bloody oath!" she swore.

"Sure, Hotaru," he said. "Whatever."

888

"A carnival?!" Sif asked, clapping her hands in delight. "Well, that's wonderful! Of course you can set up here! I think it would be just the thing Keiichi sama needs!"

Floating on the front step in front of her, two ethereal figures made of blue smoke smiled.

"Hooooow loooooong?" the first one asked.

Sif smiled happily. "As long as you like!"

"Ooooooooooh!" the second figure said happily.

888

Urd's watch beeped, and she stood up. "I gotta do something," she said. "You wanna go for a walk?"

Belldandy looked out the window and saw the sun shining down outside. After the last few hours, a walk in the sun sounded very good.

"Hai," she said, rising to her feet.

The elder Norn grabbed her purse and led her sister out the front door, turning to lock it as she spoke.

"It's not far," she said. "Otherwise we could take the car. Besides, it's nice out."

"Where are we going?" Belldandy asked.

"Megumi asked me to walk Sachiko home from school," Urd told her as they started down the front path.

"Sachiko?" the young goddess asked quizzically.

Urd winced. "Right. You have no id..." She cut herself off and started to explain. "Megumi married a guy named Toshio, and they have a little girl. Megumi's pregnant again, but there's some complications, and the doctor doesn't want her out of bed if it can be helped. So I'm walking Sachiko chan home from school."

It took a moment for Urd to realize that Belldandy was no longer with her. Turning, she found the goddess several paces behind her. "What is it?"

Belldandy stared down at the pavement and shook her head. "It amazes me," she whispered. "How much can change for them in such a short time."

Urd shrugged with a smile. "They don't have as long as we do to get it right," she said. "Did you know that by the time a mortal woman reaches thirty, a pregnancy is considered 'risky'? They don't have centuries to mull things over, to wait for life to offer them exactly what they want."

"You've given this a lot of thought," Belldandy told her.

The older goddess shrugged again. "It's the way they are. They have to discover what they want out of life early then hack it out of Creation with their own two hands. They have no time to sit on their hands and wait for life to get its act together."

"Is that what I did?"

Urd blinked and looked at her. "What?"

Belldandy met her gaze. "Did I... Did I wait too long? Did I wait too long to tell Keiichi how I really felt?"

The older goddess kept her eyes locked on her sister. "Are you asking," she began quietly, "If he would have married me if he had already slept with you?"

Belldandy sucked in a breath at the sound of the "M" word, the word her sister had not yet spoke, but had certainly implied.

She stood there, unable to speak, but at the same time unable to lie. The goddess nodded.

Urd swallowed. "I don't know," she said.

"Would you have?" Belldandy asked pointedly.

The question threw Urd off-guard. "Huh?"

"Would you have married him," she went on, "If you knew he and I had been intimate?"

Urd swallowed again and answered. "Yes," she said. "Yes, I would have."

The silence hung in the air between them for several moments. Finally, Urd turned and started walking again. "Come on," she said. "Sachiko chan's waiting."

"That's all you have to say?" Belldandy whispered.

"I keep telling you, Belldandy," Urd replied as she walked. "I'm not confessing. I'm explaining. And I'm not going to apologize for any of it." She paused and turned back to her. "You met him first, but I've known him longer. He's the best thing to ever happen to me, and I like to think I'm the best thing to ever happen to him. I love him. And I'll never again feel bad for feeling that."

She turned and started walking again. Belldandy fell into step beside her.

_Ten years ago..._

Urd's hands gripped his waist a little tighter as Keiichi took the turn onto their road a little faster than normal. Even in the dead of night, the road and the houses on either side were visible in a combination of good street lighting and the full moon overhead.

Sitting side-saddle on the Beemer behind him, she craned her neck to look over his shoulder, trying to catch a look at the temple. The party was still going on, but she and Keiichi had decided to leave just before midnight.

As the temple came into sight, Urd could immediately tell something was off. There seemed to be a lot more light and a lot of activity up at the top of the hill.

"Hey, you see that?!" Keiichi shouted over his shoulder at her.

"Yeah!" she replied. "Slow up!"

The Beemer came to a halt, and Urd hopped off as Keiichi removed his helmet. They looked up the hill atop which the shrine rested.

"You hear that?" Urd asked. "It sounds like music."

"Is that a circus?" Keiichi asked.

"Come on," Urd said, starting up the hill. Keiichi followed, and the two soon found themselves at the main gate. The music was louder now, and the movement they saw earlier turned out to be carnival rides spinning and rolling throughout the temple grounds. A ticket booth stood not far from the temple's front door.

Urd went straight for the temple entrance and rushed inside.

"Sif!?" she called out. "Sif!? Are you here?!"

The temple was still. Of the goddess there was no sign.

"What the hell is going on?" Keiichi asked. "Where's Sif?"

Urd chewed the inside of her cheek and stepped outside again. Keiichi stepped out behind her and walked up to the ticket booth. It appeared empty at first, but he could hear someone moving under the podium, probably looking for extra tickets or something.

"Excuse me," he said, knocking on the podium. "I'm looking for a blon...."

A man made of blue smoke rose from behind the podium and hissed at him.

"AUUGH!" Keiichi cried and fell back on his butt. "What the hell!?"

The spirit looked at him with hungry eyes as Urd rushed over to stand between the two.

"Twooooo ruuuuuples.... peeeer.... peeeeersooooon," it moaned at them. "Chiiiiiildreeeeen.... fiiiiiiiive.... aaaaaaand...... uuuuuuuuundeeeeeer................ FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Urd eyed the smokey apparition warily. "We don't have any ruples," she told it. "We're looking for a friend of ours. A blonde woman in a green dress. Did she come through here?"

The thing cackled, the sound sending the hairs on Keiichi's neck standing on end.

"Sheeeeeeee iiiiiiiiiis.... wiiiith.... UUUUUUUUSSSSSS....noooooooow," it groaned.

"So she's in there?" Urd asked, pointing at the carnival.

It opened its mouth and moaned.

"I guess that means 'yes,'" Keiichi surmised, rising to his feet.

"We're going in," Urd said, either to Keiichi, the apparition or both.

"Twoooooo ruuuuuuples...."

"We're not paying," Urd told it angrily. "Your carnival's on our lawn. That means we get a free pass."

It hissed at them. "Yooooouuuu.... wiiiiill.... paaaaaaay........SOOOOOOOON EEEENOOOOUUUGH!"

Urd eyed it as she walked past the booth and into the carnival. Keiichi fell into step beside her.

"You think they have funnel cakes?" he asked. "I could seriously go for a funnel cake."

"You want to eat something from _here_?" she asked. "Funnel cake of the damned?"

"That's a trick question," he replied. "All funnel cake is funnel cake of the damned. It's deep fried dough covered in sugar, for God's sake."

Urd stopped and looked around at the rides and tents spread throughout the temple grounds. "Yeah, well, be careful what you eat," she said. "I had a cousin who ate some pomegranate seeds once. Next thing she knew, she was married and had to spend six months in Hades every year. Divorce lawyers really screwed her."

"Point taken," he allowed.

She pointed toward a larger tent and started for it. "You're taking this awfully well," she noted as they walked toward the bright red canvas structure.

He shrugged. "I guess it's been awhile since we've had a wacky adventure," he told her.

"Did you just call this a 'wacky adventure?'" she asked.

Before he could answer they were only feet from the ghost carny outside the tent.

"We're looking fo..."

"Whaaaat yoooouuu seeeeeek iiiiis in theeeere," it said, pointing at the tent entrance.

The two looked to one another, and Keiichi gestured to the tent. "Ladies first."

Urd led the way, parting the tent flaps and stepping inside. Keiichi followed her while his mind mulled over what the goddess had said. He was taking this better than he should. They were looking for their missing friend in the middle of a haunted carnival, but the fear he would normally have felt if they were facing Marller or any other agent of evil was nowhere to be found.

_Perhaps I'm still suicidal,_ he thought.

"Check it out," Urd said, breaking him out of his thoughts. Keiichi looked over her shoulder and found row after row of mirrors.

"A hall of mirrors," he said. "They make you look weird," he explained.

"Huh," she grunted in answer, stepping in front of a mirror. She looked herself over and shook her head. "I look normal."

"Yeah, me too," he said, looking in the mirror on the opposite side of the hall. "That sucks."

He tried another mirror and saw the same mirror image of himself. "I don't get it."

The man moved to the mirror Urd was looking in and glanced at it. "Wow," he said with a whistle. "You look like a million bucks!"

"What are you talking about?" she asked. "It's just my reflection.... but thanks!" she added with a grin.

He squinted at the mirror as if it would change what he saw. Urd was decked out in an absolutely beautiful wedding dress. "It looks good on you," he said.

"What does?"

"The dress," he said.

"You need to start making sense," she told him. Her eyes fell on his reflection in another mirror. "Huh, that's weird," she said. "That mirror shows you in a labcoat."

He turned to the mirror she gestured to. "No it doesn't."

"Well, that's stupid!" Urd cried as she figured it out. "It shows you in different ways but only to other people! What a gip!"

"So what do you think it's showing?" Keiichi asked as he watched Urd walk past three mirrors, each showing her in a different outfit.

She shrugged. "Who knows?" The goddess arched an eyebrow as her vantage point showed his reflection in another mirror. "Nice tux. I approve."

"Thanks... I think," he said.

"We're getting off the subject," Urd said. She cupped her hands around her mouth. "SIF! SIF! Are you in here?!"

Nothing.

"I knew it," Urd muttered. "That ghost is full of shit."

Keiichi was staring into a mirror, eyes wide.

"Keiichi?" she asked, turning to him. "Hey, you there?" She followed his gaze and found her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes narrowed. "What am I wearing?"

"What?" he asked, snapping out of it. "Oh... um... something very stylish," he lied.

She stepped out of the mirror's gaze. "Sure I am," she said, smiling slightly.

"Come on," he sighed. "Sif's waiting."

Urd started toward the exit. Catching sight of movement in the mirror on her left, she suddenly cried out and threw herself against the wall, her eyes locked on the mirror but afraid to look into the silvery glass.

"What is it?!" Keiichi asked, rushing up to her.

"What do you see in that mirror?" she asked him breathlessly.

"Why?" he asked. "What did you see?"

"Hild."

He looked into it, and she watched his face turn ashen. She wasn't expecting that kind of reaction.

"What?" she asked.

The boy took a step back and bit his lip. He turned and walked toward the exit. "Don't worry, Hild's not hiding in there," he said quietly.

"Keiichi?" she asked, watching him walk out.

She poked her head around the frame of the mirror and looked inside.

Her mother's face stared back at her... except it wasn't. It was the same outfit, the same evil humor dancing in the eyes, but it was Urd's green orbs that looked back at her. She stepped around and looked at herself, every bit the queen of Hell.

The expression on the reflection's face didn't match the horrified one on Urd's face. Instead, it grinned at her maliciously. Unable to see it any longer, she rushed toward the exit.

888

She found him standing next to an animal pen, what appeared to be a petting zoo, leaning against the fence. Inside the pen, an assortment of skeletons meandered around aimlessly, munching at the grass on the ground.

"Keiichi?" she asked quietly.

"This is awful," he replied.

_He must have really been shaken by what he saw,_ she thought. She put her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

"I mean look at this," he said, gesturing to the skeletons. "A skeleton petting zoo? Really? I mean, I can't even tell what kind of animal this is!" He gestured at a skeleton grazing in front of him. "What is this? What?!"

Her eyebrow twitched.

The goddess leaned against the fence next to him and watched the creature graze for a moment.

"What did you see?" she whispered.

"I'll never tell," he replied quietly. He looked up after a moment. "I think those mirrors show different things. The future, the past, things you're afraid of..."

She mulled on that. Her as Hild definitely counted as something she was afraid of. Her worse fear was to become like her mother. The goddess turned around and rested her back against the fence.

"Hey, Keiichi," she began softly. "We should probably talk."

"What about?" he asked.

She took a breath. "She's not coming back," she said. "I think you know that."

He nodded slowly. "Yeah," he allowed, looking down at the ground. "Yeah."

Urd studied his face intently, wondering if he would cry or become emotional, but it seemed that after three months Keiichi had come to grips with the apparent reality.

"So," she went on. "You have to make a decision about the future."

Keiichi finally turned to her. "What do you mean?"

She licked her lips nervously. "What I mean is... well... this was never supposed to be a permanent arrangement. I thought we'd get Belldandy back, and things would go back normal. But if she's not coming back..." She broke off and looked over at him. "If you want another goddess... someone more... um..." She shrugged. "I guess 'suitable....' We can do that."

He looked at the ground. "No," he told her flatly.

"Keiichi," she began again. "This is your wish we're talking about. You're _entitled_ to better. You can't have Belldandy, but you can have someone closer to what she is than me..."

"Urd, you're family," he said, turning to her. He looked at the sky while he tried to figure out a way to word it. "You and Belldandy and Skuld... and me... We were like a family. And living together... I mean... it had its screwed up moments, but it was the best time of my life. In the past five months, I've watched that family shrink. Now... you and me... we're all that's left. If you go... how would I know it ever really happened?"

She mulled on this.

"I mean, if you _want_ to go, that's one thing," he said. "Please, if you don't want to stay, then please go." He paused. "It's okay. But if you're asking me to send you away, I'm going to say no." He looked at her, only the first hints of a smile lighting his face. "You're the only link I have left to that life."

Their eyes locked for several moments until...

"BAAAAAH!"

Keiichi slapped the fence post. "A sheep!" he cried. "That's what you are!" he called down to the animal.

Urd couldn't help but smile.

Then they heard the scream.

"That sounded like Sif!" Urd cried, turning and running toward the sound.

Keiichi took off after her, running past several games and rides being tended by ghostly shapes until they got to a ride that sat at the far end of the carnival, a Six Spin which whirled its carts through the air. Whoever was screaming was on that ride.

"Sif!" Keiichi cried. "Is that you!?"

There was no answer. The ride slowed to a stop, and the safety bars lifted up. Urd and Keiichi watched as a lone blonde woman got up, ran down the stairs and went right past them to climb the entry stairs and get back into the cart.

The ride started again. The woman screamed in joy.

Urd and Keiichi stood there, stunned.

"What... What's happening here?" Keiichi asked.

"That poor goddess," Urd breathed.

"Huh?"

Urd turned to him, fright in her eyes. "Those bastard ghosts! They've put some kind of curse on her, condemning her to ride this hideous thing forever! She probably tried to stop them from setting up their carnival, and they somehow overpowered her!"

By this time the ride had stopped, and Sif trotted over to them. "Actually," she began, breathing hard in residual excitement. "I just really love this ride!" She giggled and started for the steps again, but Urd grabbed her arm.

"That's funny," Urd bit out angrily. "Because I can't think of any other _logical_ reason why a haunted gypsy carnival would be camped out on our lawn _except_ that they overpowered you and forced you to let them."

Sif smiled. "Sure there is, silly! They asked if they could stay here, and I said yes!"

Keiichi took a quick look around, taking in the sight of the twisted, grim-faced specter working the ride, the sight of sheep skeletons grazing near where they kept their summer garden, the visage of ghost gold fish sitting in rows of bowls inside a tent, waiting for a well-placed ping pong ball to liberate them and take them to a new home every bit as screwed up as this one.

He shook his head and blinked at Sif. "Wh... Wh... What on _Earth_... made you think for _one second_... that _that_ was a _good_ idea?!" he asked.

Sif looked down at the ground and made little circles in the ground with her toe. "Because carnivals are fun?" she answered.

Keiichi stared at her, mouth agape. He looked to his right and watched a ghost throw a dart at a balloon and miss. The ghost stared up at the sky and gave a long, sorrowful moan filled with despair and bitterness toward an almighty God who refused to love him because he was a damned and soulless creature.

"Does it look like anyone's having fun here?!" he cried.

Sif paused, her gaze still rooted to the ground. "I was having fun," she muttered.

Urd pushed her way between them. "Okay, enough," she said. "Sif, just tell them they have to go."

"Leave?" she asked. "But... I told them they could stay as long as they want."

"How long is that?" Keiichi demanded.

"A few days, I guess," she said. "They didn't really specify..."

"Theeeeeere theeeeeey aaaaaaaaare...."

The three of them turned and saw two apparitions coming their way, one of them was the ghost working the ticket booth. He pointed a smoky, skeletal finger at them.

"Thoooooose aaaare the oooooones whooooo diiiiidn't paaaaaaaaaaaay...."

Sif seemed to recognize the other ghost. She brightened and clasped her hands together. "Ringmaster! How are you? All settled in?"

The ringmaster tipped a tattered top hat to the blonde and grinned a skeletal smile at her. "Weeee aaaaare aaaaall moooved iiin," he told her.

"Yeah, about that," Urd said, moving in. "Just how long will you be camping out here?"

The ringmaster threw his head back and laughed a deathly cackle like the sound of a thousand maniacs pulling the bows across a thousand violins made from the bones and tendons of the damned.

"So... what, a week?" Keiichi asked.

"Fooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooor.....EEEEEEEEVEEEEEER!!!"

Urd and Keiichi threw dirty looks at Sif, who giggled nervously before gazing once again at the ground.

"Well!" Urd declared, clapping her hands together. "That just won't do. So you need to pack up your rides and your... creepy creepy animals... and go."

"Nooooooooo!" the other ghost cried. "Weeeee've noooowheeeere eeeeelse!"

"Yeah, well, I sympathize," Urd said. "But we can't have a haunted carnival killing people and taking their souls. The homeowners association will shit a golden brick."

"Weee dooon't kiiiill!" the ringmaster argued.

"Thaaat oone tiiiime waaaaas an aaaaacciiiiideeent!" the other cried. "Tooootaaaally!"

"In their defense," Sif brought up cautiously. "They haven't really tried to hurt anyone."

The ghosts shook their heads.

"Aaaaaand yooooouuuuu diiiiiiid proooooomiiiiise," the ringmaster pointed out to Sif.

Sif laughed uncomfortably. "Yeah.... I... I kind of did..."

"Weeeee've traaaaveled soooooooo looooooooong," the ringmaster begged. "Weeeeeee're sooooo tiiiiiired. Pleeeeeease.... Weeee wiiiiish oooonly toooo reeeest."

Keiichi sighed, wondering what Belldandy would do. Urd looked like she had no qualms about exorcising them by force. However, he knew that if his girlfriend were here, she'd probably make them tea and ask if their twisted, creepy, weird menagerie animals needed oats.

Urd turned at the sound of his sigh. "You're going to let them stay, aren't you?" she asked.

He didn't answer her, instead turning to the ringmaster. "You promise to keep a low profile?"

"Yeeeeeeeees."

"And you won't steal any souls... or kill anyone?"

"Proooooomise."

Urd elbowed her way in. "And we get fifteen percent of your ticket sales!"

"Aaaaaaagreeeeeed."

Keiichi sighed again. "Then I guess you can stay."

"Aaaaaawesoooooome."

The boy held his hand out, and the ringmaster regarded it carefully before taking it in his own and shaking it. With a nod, the two ghosts turned and walked away.

"And a new source of income falls into our laps!" Urd cried victoriously. "Sure, it's creepy and weird now, but just wait until Halloween! We'll be _the_ Halloween party destination! At two ruples a head that comes to... um..." She paused. "How many yen in a ruple?"

"Fifteen hundred," Sif supplied helpfully.

"Fifteen _hundred_ yen in every ruple!" Urd exclaimed, practically drooling now. "That's three thousand yen per person!"

"Oh, um... I'm sorry," Sif began. "Actually... that's... um... backward..."

Urd froze mid-victory dance. "Um... what?"

"It's actually fifteen hundred ruples to the yen," Sif volunteered.

Urd put her face in her hands, and Keiichi thought she might be crying.

Sif winced, but then caught sight of the skeleton petting zoo and brightened, clasping her hands in front of her. "Animals!" she cried. "I want to ride the pony!" She dashed off toward the menagerie.

"Urd?" Keiichi asked quietly.

"Let's... just... go..." she bit out from behind her hands.

The two started for the exit, passing Sif as she rode the skeleton of a pony around in a circle. Urd sighed.

"You're a good guy, Keiichi Morisato," she told him. "But you're kind of a blockhead."

"Thanks, Lucy," he replied, rolling his eyes. He stopped suddenly, his attention pulled to a tent with a picture of a blue orb posted outside. "Hey, Urd," he said. "Remember those mirrors?"

"Yeah," she answered uncertainly.

He broke away and walked toward the tent.

Urd followed. "Keiichi," she called after him. She watched him pull the flaps of the tent aside and step inside. "Dammit." She followed and found herself inside a dimly lit tent that smelled of musk and incense. In the center sat a circular table with a blue tablecloth upon which sat a glass orb that glowed a dim blue. Seated on the other side of this table, staring into the orb, was an ethereal spirit woman with pitch-black hair. She looked up at them with glowing eyes.

"Sit, Keiichi Morisato," she said, gesturing to a stool.

Keiichi sat down without a word.

"My name is Desdemona," she told her, voice seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere. "I can tell you what secrets the future keeps from you, provide you chart and rudder for the course of your life and provide you with great hope or cripple you with despair...one thousand yen."

"The guy outside charges two ruples," Keiichi noted.

"The guy outside works cheap. Me and the universe do not."

Keiichi pulled out his wallet and produced the required amount of money. "I'm in love with a woman who is..." He swallowed dryly. "... far away. I want to know..."

"I will tell you what I can," Desdemona told him, looking into the crystal ball, which now glowed brighter.

Urd stood aside, watching the scene unfold with a sense of grim fascination. Most fortune tellers, she knew, were frauds. But this carnival, thus far, was anything but the typical collection of geeks, freaks and frauds.

Desdemona tapped the ball with her finger. She leveled a haunting grin at him. "It would seem, Keiichi Morisato, that you needn't worry."

"I needn't?" he asked stupidly.

She sat back and studied him with her glowing eyes. "Your chart is clear, your course set. You will wed a goddess of great power and beauty, and she will bear you children and provide you with love and comfort and joy the likes of which you have never known. Your lives will be filled with adventure, good times and bad, and there will always be for you that spark between you. So let not your heart be heavy, Keiichi Morisato, for the universe, though she has looked darkly on you in the past, sees you now with only love in her heart."

Keiichi smiled, not speaking as he took the prediction. "You know," he said quietly. "That helps." He raised his eyes to her. "Thank you."

Desdemona dipped her head in acknowledgement.

He stood up and looked down at her again. "Thank you," he said again. "It... it feels good to have a little hope."

The gypsy spirit bowed again.

Keiichi turned to Urd. "I'm ready to go." He suddenly yawned. "God, what time is it?"

"Late," she told him. "You go on ahead. I want to see what my fortune is." She dug into her pocket and pulled out two bills.

"Okay," he said. He turned and bowed low to Desdemona in thanks before walking out of the tent.

888

"So you knew," Belldandy gasped in shock as they continued down the street. "She told you... She _told you_ I was coming back!"

Urd didn't say anything for a moment. She walked with her head down. "No, Sis," she finally said. The goddess met Belldandy's eyes, her own veiled with sympathy and regret. "She didn't."

_Ten years ago..._

Urd sat down and threw the two five hundred yen bills on the table. "Okay," she said. "Let me have it. Fame, fortune, what?"

Desdemona reached across the table and took the money, putting the two bills in her purse before picking up an emery board and working on her nails.

The goddess's eyes narrowed. "Um... hello?" she said, waving her hand in front of the gypsy's eyes. "My money not good here or something? What about my fortune?"

The gypsy looked up, her eyes boring into Urd's very being.

"I just told it," she said. "Urd Morisato."


	11. The Oak and the Ash Tree Part 1

Disclaimer: AMG is not mine. The song Urd sings is "Bonny Portmore." I wanted a song that had the same haunting melody as the song Belldandy sings but with a more depressing bent. "Back in Black" is by ACDC.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 11**

**The Oak and the Ash Tree - Part 1**

"And how did hearing that make you feel?" Belldandy asked as the two came to a stop across the street from an elementary school.

Urd looked up at the school. Classes hadn't let out yet. It was obvious she was stalling.

"Does this look like a good school?" she asked Belldandy. "I think it must be a good school."

Belldandy looked down at the sidewalk. "How did you feel?" she pressed firmly.

"Actually... I laughed at her," Urd confessed. "It was just so ridiculous. First, the idea that he would even consider that..." Her voice turned harsh in self reproach. "And the idea that I would betray you like that..."

She paused, perhaps waiting for Belldandy to throw in that she had. When Belldandy said nothing, she continued on.

"I didn't give it much thought at first," she said. "As time went on, and he got better, it grew more and more in my head to the point where it started to preoccupy me."

_Nine years ago..._

Sif stepped outside and shut the door behind her, watching her breath become foggy mist in the cold before her eyes. Adjusting her coat, she hopped down the temple steps and walked through the fresh snow on the temple grounds.

She took stock of the amount of snow and decided it would have to be shoveled today. Keiichi was out this morning and had been since about two a.m. when the call came from Hotaru that the civil auxiliary had been activated. Some hikers had gotten lost in the woods, and every plane in the area was asked to help search. Keiichi would be in the back seat of the Shinden for a few more hours most likely. Which meant that Sif was shoveling today.

She sighed and shivered to herself. December in Nekomi was quite chilly. The goddess was about to turn back and go make herself a hot cup of tea when she heard it.

Singing.

Her mind went immediately back to Heaven, to her childhood playing with Belldandy at her family's home in Elysium. She started toward the sound, walking toward the stand of trees at the north side of the residence.

"_Oh, bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand..._

_And the more I think on you... the more I think long..."_

She stepped a little faster, thinking perhaps the impossible had happened and Belldandy had returned. The similarity in the voice as uncanny. With the leaves off the trees, she could see through the stand easily, and it didn't take long before she saw the voice's owner.

"_If I had you now as... I had once before..._

_All the lords in old England... would not purchase Portmore."_

Sif watched Urd, standing before a large oak tree still clinging to a few yellow leaves, her voice reaching out to it in a tone so sad it made Sif's heart break. It was obvious something was on the Norn's mind. She never heard her sing.

"_All the birds in the forest... they bitterly weep..._

_Sighing, 'Where shall we shelter? Where shall we sleep?'"_

Moved, Sif closed her eyes and let the melody flow over her.

"_For the oak and the ash tree...are all cutten down..._

_And the walls of bonny Portmore... are all down to the ground._

_Oh, bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand,_

_And the more I think on you... the more I think long..._

_If I had you now as... I had once before..._

_All the lords in old England... would not purchase Portmore..."_

Sif opened her eyes and found Urd still staring at the tree, a green bud popping up here and there. She stepped forward, her boots making a crunching sound as she crushed the snow beneath them.

"Urd san?" she asked tentatively. She knew something was bothering her. Urd was never up this early. "Are you okay?"

The Norn finally turned to her. "Oh... Hey," she said as if realizing the other goddess was there.

Sif studied her intently, trying to guess the goddess's worry. "Are you concerned for Keiichi sama?" she asked. At Urd's start, she guessed she must be right and continued. "I don't think you need to be. The snowfall is very light, and Hotaru san is an accomplished pilot."

"Oh," Urd said, rubbing her hands together for warmth as she started for the house. "Yeah. I'm sure he's fine."

The blonde blinked at her, more confused now than ever. "Are you worried about his state of mind, then?" This would make even less sense. In the last six months, Keiichi had made an incredible recovery. His hope and faith and had returned to him... even as Urd's seemed to decline.

"I just have a lot on my mind," Urd told her.

"Ah!" Sif said, falling into step beside her. "Are you trying to come up with Christmas gifts?"

"Gifts?" Urd asked absently.

"In_deed_!" Sif replied. "You haven't gone shopping yet. Are you still trying to decide what to get him?"

"Yeah," Urd lied. "Still looking for ideas. You got any?"

"A sweater!" Sif answered immediately, without thinking.

Urd froze. "I'm not getting him a sweater."

"But why not?" Sif asked. "It's chilly out."

"Belldandy knit him a sweater," Urd said. "A great sweater that traveled across destiny to find him after we lost it. No sweaters."

Sif studied her face, saw Urd biting her lip as she walked.

"You know what you want to get him," Sif told her. "You just don't want to say."

Urd stopped. Sif waited patiently for her to go on.

The Norn met her eyes, a very serious look on her face, as if she was about to announce that she put a hit out on Keiichi.

"I want to get him a girlfriend," she said.

Sif was so shocked, she took a step back. Her hand went to her mouth while her face turned rosy, and not from the cold.

"You... you want..." she whispered. She leaned in and continued. "You want to _pay_ a girl to... with Keiichi sama?"

"No!" Urd cried. "Are you nuts?!"

"Well, I just mean..." Sif said, embarrassed. "I just... I thought..."

Urd shook her head and continued walking. "He's twenty-two, and he's withdrawing."

"Withdrawing?" Sif repeated. She didn't get that impression. "But he seems happier now."

"He's happier because he's convinced Belldandy's coming back," Urd told her. "So he's not even trying."

"He _can't_ try, Urd san," Sif reminded her. "If he does, the System Force becomes irritated. That's why they call him... oh, what is it?" she tried to remember. "Curse?"

"Jinx," the Norn supplied with a sigh. Cake wasn't the only girl to make a pass at Keiichi, and after the third girl made a run at him and ended up with a mouthful of concrete for her trouble, rumors started to fly around the Aeronautics Club. At first, suspicion fell on Urd as a potential evil rival, but after awhile, it was concluded that Keiichi was simply jinxed, hence the callsign.

Urd chewed the inside of her cheek. "But he's not even thinking along those lines anymore. He's not in the right mindset. I mean, if he meets a nice girl that he really likes, I'd give up the contract and let him live happily ever after, you know?" She paused and shook her head. "He's a good guy. He should have a girlfriend." Her voice lowered to just above a whisper. "As long as he's waiting for Belldandy, he'll never have the opportunity."

"But isn't that a good thing?" Sif asked. "I mean, when Belldandy comes back..."

"Belldandy's not coming back!" Urd shouted at her.

Sif blinked. "Well, that's absurd," she said. "That gypsy told him..."

"The gypsy's a fraud, Sif," Urd told her, omitting the things it had told her. "She tells you what you want to hear because you give her money. Nobody pays to hear about what a sad, shitty life you're going to have!"

The blonde thought on this. It didn't seem very nice to lie about the future. Even so...

"Then... what makes you think she's never coming back?" Sif asked. "Heaven is still negotiating with Hild. It's within the realm of possibility."

Urd tensed. Yes, she knew for certain how things were going to be, but she couldn't explain that without undercutting what she had just said about Desdemona. Her lies had boxed her in. She chastised herself silently. She was a better liar than that.

"I just know," she whispered.

Sif looked at her sympathetically, but nevertheless drew the wrong conclusion. "I think you're internalizing this."

"What?"

The blonde goddess smiled for her benefit. "You're taking too much of this on yourself," she went on. "You're not expected to grant all his wishes. You don't have to try so hard. All a mortal can do is make the best of the wish he was granted. It's not your job to guarantee his happiness."

Urd looked at her with pain-filled eyes, and Sif wondered what she had said to cause such a look.

"No," Urd finally said. "It's not. It's Belldandy's."

888

Keiichi winced as a blast of winter wind rocked the Shinden again. The weather over the national nature preserve was getting worse with snow and clouds making it almost impossible to see, the world itself covered in a blanket of white. The bumps caused by turbulence weren't new to him; training to be a demo pilot meant Hotaru taking him up in the Shinden with the express purpose of kicking his ass almost daily. He just wished she'd turn the music down.

_"I've been look'n at the sky, 'cause it's getting me high,_

_Forget the hearse, 'cause I never die!"_

Listening to Hotaru sing along with ACDC wouldn't be so bad if he couldn't also hear the Shinden doing it too. Instead, he focused on the monitor on the right side of his panel. The infrared camera, or FLIR, was sensitive enough to pick up a person's body heat, even in this weather.

Somewhere out there were three hikers who went out before this sudden storm popped up. Keiichi hoped they were okay.

He blinked as something popped up on the FLIR, just for a second, but he would swear he saw something.

"Hey!" he shouted to the pilot. "Hey, Razor!"

_"Baaaack in blaaaack! Baaaack in blaaack!"_

He reached up and smacked the back of her headset.

"Oi, prick!" she cried. "What's all that for?!"

Keiichi shouted over the music. "I think I saw something! Do a one-eighty and veer left!"

She turned the Shinden, and Keiichi watched the screen. There! A heat source, but very faint.

"I think we got something!" he shouted up to her.

Like someone hit a switch, Hotaru suddenly turned serious. She cut the music and clicked her mic. "Rescue Control, this is Nevada One-Two-One-Papa-Papa," she said. "We got a contact."

"Roger, Nevada One-Two-One-Papa-Papa," Cake's voice came over the headset. "Give me your GPS coordinates."

Keiichi read the coordinates to her and paused. "We're going to circle until the helicopter gets here," he told her. "Is that okay, Razor?"

Hotaru nodded. "Yeah, we got fuel for that."

888

The Shinden beat the helicopter back to the airfield by forty-five minutes. Jiroo and the Brothers Z were pushing the airplane into the hangar and out of the weather when the JASDF HH-60 landed nearby. Keiichi watched as two women and a pair of paramedics ran up to the helicopter to pull three men from the chopper and into the ambulance.

"They going to be okay, you think?" Keiichi asked Hotaru as the maintainers started closing the hangar doors.

"Maybe," she said. "Got a better chance in that ambulance than out in that soup." She slapped his back. "Good catch, Jinx."

"Thanks," he said, still watching them. One of the women who had run out to the helicopter paused and caught sight of him. She quickly bowed, perhaps in thanks, before running to the ambulance. Keiichi surmised she was probably family, a daughter or a sister.

He shivered and stepped back into the hangar.

888

Keiichi looked at the review question and smiled, knowing the answer before he was even finished.

_A jet engine recovered from a crash is found to have dirt inside it. What does this indicate?_

He selected the right answer and moved on. The student had bombed the classes he was taking when Belldandy was sealed, too emotionally screwed up to put in the work necessary. The following semester, he changed his major to aeronautical engineering and had attacked the course material with a convert's zeal. With exams next week, he could confidently say he was ready.

Keiichi looked up at the sound of the knock on his door and found Sif standing there, a cup and saucer in her hand.

"I made you some cocoa," she announced. "May I come in?"

"Sure," he said, indicating the seat on the other side of the small table he was sitting at.

Sif placed the cup of cocoa before him and sat down. "Keiichi sama," she began without preamble. "I am concerned about Urd's emotional health."

Keiichi's eyes widened at the statement. For the last nine months Urd had been his oak, his strength. "What makes you say that?" he asked her.

The goddess paused, trying to find the best words to describe her concern. "She misses Belldandy a great deal," she told him quietly. "She is determined to fill the gaps she left behind one way or another. This morning, I heard her singing to the trees outside. I know Belldandy used to do that, but I had never known Urd to do such a thing. And then there's you..."

"Me?" Keiichi asked. "What about me?"

"She is so concerned for you, Keiichi sama," Sif went on. "She has taken all of it on her shoulders. She also believes..." She went quiet for a moment, not sure she should speak more of it. "She also believes that you place too much faith in the words of that gypsy."

Keiichi looked away for a moment and took a breath. "Sif, I don't believe Belldandy will come back because Desdemona said so," he told her. "I believe it because I have to, because I know we're supposed to be together. Hearing Desdemona confirm it just reinforced it, that's all."

"Nevertheless, Urd is concerned for you," Sif went on. "To the point where I fear for her emotional state."

The boy nodded. "What can I do?"

Sif licked her lips. Reaching across the table, she took his hands in her own. "Trust her," she said. "She sees herself as your guardian or your caretaker. No matter what, know that she has your best interest at heart. Trust in her."

He gave her a sardonic smile. "Trust Urd?" he asked. "A year ago trusting Urd would get me in soooooo much trouble." He trailed off and nodded. "But okay. I'll keep an open mind."

"She may attempt to... um... interfere... in the future," Sif warned him.

"Gee, there's a switch," Keiichi replied, rolling his eyes. "But I promise, Sif. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. She's been there for me for the last nine months. She hasn't turned her back on me, and I won't turn mine on her."

Sif smiled brightly. "Good! Thank you, Keiichi sama!"

It was at that moment that Urd poked her head around the corner. "Hey, I got a shoot," she said. "See you tonight."

"Wait," Keiichi told her, rising to his feet. "I'll give you a lift."

"The Beemer in this weather?" Urd asked with an arched eyebrow. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'll walk."

"Then I'll walk you there," he replied.

Urd looked uncomfortable for half a second before her old defenses kicked back in. "Okay, whatever." She started down the hall.

Keiichi grabbed his coat and threw Sif a wink as he followed her.

888

The sun was starting to go down as they left the temple and started for the train station. At first, Keiichi remained silent, waiting for Urd to speak, hoping he'd be able to gauge her emotional state from her tone, but the goddess was silent. Finally, he decided to break the ice.

"I think it's warming up," he said, shivering a bit.

"Then you're insane," she replied. "It's freezing."

"Heck, next to Hokkaido this is a summer day at the beach," he told her with a smile. "You've never been there, but..."

"I was there," she said, cutting him off. "With Belldandy and Skuld. Back when Hild tried to take you from Belldandy." _Like mother, like daughter,_ a voice whispered in her head. She bit her lip angrily and kept her mouth shut.

"Well, then you know what I mean," he said, keeping things light. They walked quietly for another few minutes before he tried again. "What are you getting Sif for Christmas?" he asked.

"A sweater," she replied without thinking. "She keeps mentioning them."

He nodded. "I want to get her something nice, you know. Kinda say thanks for all the stuff she does."

She didn't answer, absorbed in her own thoughts. For six months she'd been fighting this battle with herself. Someone said there were stages or levels of acceptance. Denial, anger and such. She started with disbelief, outright calling Desdemona a liar to her face.

The gypsy didn't seem to care, only shrugging and returning to her nails. Urd remembered something about her mother at that point, something that was difficult for an outsider to believe. Hild didn't really care for lying. She preferred the truth. Lying took effort, planning, and once you were caught, the game was over. The truth, however, could hurt just as much when applied in the right ways at the right times. The truth could kill and had the added benefit of being undeniable.

She supposed denial was next, if that was any different from disbelief. Perhaps the difference was that disbelief was where she assumed Desdemona was lying as opposed to later when she just assumed she was wrong.

What was next? Anger? Or was it depression? She believed she was now in a little of both, but in some sort of weird cycle that repeated itself over and over again. Because no matter how much she refused to believe in the possibility, it was also very difficult to shake the eerie feeling that accompanied knowing such a thing about the future. It was a tingling, seductive feeling to look across the dinner table at an unsuspecting man and know that he was going to marry you, that he was going to fall in love with you. That feeling led to a warmth in her stomach.

Then she'd catch herself and get angry for allowing herself that betrayal, however slight, of her sister. What kind of woman, what kind of slut, thinks and feels that about her sister's boyfriend?

Then the depression would fall on her like a filthy blanket, wrapping her in guilt, as she tried to find some other way to feel.

"Urd?"

"Huh?" she replied suddenly.

Keiichi was looking at her in concern. "I was saying maybe we should all go shopping this weekend," he said. "Pick up some Christmas stuff."

"Yeah," she said, with a quick nod. "Yeah, that's a good idea." She licked her lips and turned to him again. "What do you want for Christmas?" she asked.

He smiled. "You don't have to get me anything, Urd," he said. "You're paying for my flying lessons, and after everything you've done this year, I couldn't ask for anything more."

"That wasn't the question," she told him pointedly.

The college student shrugged. "Get me anything," he said. "I trust you."

"Do you really?" she asked suddenly.

"What's bothering you?" he came out directly. "You've been acting off for awhile now."

"I'm fine," she said. She turned and found themselves just outside the train station. "Thanks for walking me here," she said. "I'll see you tonight." She started for the door.

"Urd..."

"I'm fine," she said defiantly. "Really, Keiichi. I am. Go home. Study. You have exams next week."

With that, she disappeared inside.

Keiichi sighed. "Dammit."

888

Hotaru held the bar over his head and hissed down at him. "Come on, you whinging, yobbo whacker root rat! Stop whinging and push, ya big baby! I bet your little sister could bench this, wussy little perv!"

Lying on the bench under her, Keiichi pushed, trying not to laugh at the string of expletives he couldn't even understand.

"You think flying demo is just sitting in a chair pushing buttons?" she asked. "You're getting your arse knocked around while flipped upside down and fucked inside and out," she went on. "So push!"

Keiichi extended his arms all the way, and Hotaru grabbed the bar and guided it back to the brackets.

"Good onya, mate," she said as he rested. He sat up and stretched his arms, rotating his shoulders. Hotaru nodded appreciatively. "Improving. Bet the ladies at your house like the new guns."

Keiichi chuckled. "BB guns, maybe," he said. "Never been the muscular type. Tamiya tried to get me to work out with him, but I just never got into it."

"Yeah, well you need to," she told him. "I'm not kidding about flying demo. It's like you're getting beat up every time you fly a set."

"Hey, Razor, Jinx," Jiroo called from the doorway of the hangar's makeshift weight room. "You got a visitor."

"It ain't the booze bus, is it?" Hotaru asked.

"Nah, it's some girl," Jiroo said, chucking his thumb behind him.

They walked out of the weight room and across the hangar where a well-dressed young woman about Keiichi's age stood, a fruit basket in one hand and a bouquet of roses in the other. She looked familiar to Keiichi, her hair pulled back into a braid while a pair of glasses framed her eyes. She was a very pretty girl, and something about her, something around the eyes, made him think of Belldandy.

"G'day!" Hotaru greeted her. "I'm Hotaru Woodward. This is Keiichi Morisato. You looking for lessons?"

"No," the woman replied in a musical contralto. She bowed to them. "My name is Kiyoshi Takeda. You're the pilots who found my father and brothers?"

"Oh, them!" Hotaru replied. "That's us."

Kiyoshi bowed again and offered the flowers to Hotaru, who took them with a smile. She turned and held the fruit out to Keiichi, who took the basket with a bow.

"I know this isn't much," she said. "But please accept them and my sincerest thanks for saving their lives."

"Oh... well..." Hotaru blushed, unused to such praise. "That's right nice of you. Thank you."

"Is this the plane you found them in?" she asked, looking up at the Shinden.

"Yeah, that's her," Keiichi said.

"It's so... different," Kiyoshi commented. "I've never seen anything like it. Were you the one flying it?" she asked the young man.

"Oh, no, that was Razor," Keiichi told her, gesturing to Hotaru.

"Don't let him off that easy," Hotaru threw in. "He's the only reason we found them at all. They only showed up on FLIR for a hot second and that was it. Anyone else would've missed them for sure."

"Oh, then I must thank you again," Kiyoshi told him with another bow.

"Well, I..."

"Will you show me more of your airplane?" she asked him.

Standing nearby, Jiroo traded alarmed looks with the other maintainers.

"M...Maybe that's not such a good idea," Hotaru injected, catching wind of what was happening.

"It's not?" Kiyoshi asked. "I'm sorry... did I do something wrong?"

"No," Keiichi said, totally missing what everyone else was seeing. "Not at all. It looks different because it was an ex..."

As lead maintainer, Jiroo felt it was his duty to protect his hangar, his bird and his fellow mechanics. The boy pushed between them and faced Kiyoshi.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am," he said, all business. "But I'm going to have to ask you to not flirt with our demo pilot."

Called out in such an abrupt and crass manner, Kiyoshi turned beet red in embarrassment.

"Ex... Excuse me!?" she cried, anger starting to rise into her voice.

"Jiroo, what..." Keiichi began, aghast.

"Sorry, Jinx," Jiroo told him. "But last time this happened, a propeller spun off a Cessna and put a hole in the hangar wall." He turned back to Kiyoshi. "Keiichi here is real flattered that you're into him and all," he explained. "But for the safety of everyone here, I'm going to have to ask that you refrain from trying to pick him up."

"Jiroo, what the hell!?" Keiichi cried. "Hotaru are you..." He turned and saw Hotaru through the open hangar door, hopping into her jeep and driving away as fast as she could. "Hotaru! You coward!" he shouted.

Kiyoshi balled her hands into fists, the light refracting through her glasses gave her eyes an evil glint to them.

"Excuse me, sir," she bit out. "But I was having a private conversation with Keiichi san. And whether that conversation involves flirting or an illicit drug transaction, it is no business of yours!"

"Ma'am, it's a safety issue," Jiroo argued, backing up a pace.

"A safety issue?!" Kiyoshi cried. "That's absurd! Are you trying to tell me that just me talking to Keiichi san is a cause of concern?!"

"Um... yes?" Jiroo replied.

Kiyoshi's hand shot out and snagged Keiichi's. Looking up into his eyes, she caught his full attention.

"Keiichi san, would you have dinner with me tomorrow night so that I can thank you properly for rescuing my father and brothers?"

Every maintainer in the hangar cried out in panic and dived behind whatever cover they could find.

Yet, miraculously, nothing happened.

Keiichi stood there like a man who just stepped on a landmine only to find it was a dud. The System Force, despite being given a clear and present danger to him and Urd staying together, had done nothing.

"Um... well... um..." he stammered.

The girl seemed to think her honor was at stake and squeezed his hand. "I cannot accept no for an answer," she told him. "Please let me take you to dinner."

Peeking up over a crate, Kit Kat interjected. "Could you please take this conversation outside before you kill us all?"

Kiyoshi squeezed his hand again, her eyes imploring him.

"Yeah," he blurted. "Okay."

As if a storm had passed, she smiled and released his hand. "Wonderful! Shall we meet here tomorrow night? Seven o'clock?"

"O...Okay," he stammered.

She bowed to him again. Turning, she threw Jiroo a look of pure venom before walking out of the hangar.

From behind a stack of crates, Cake's tiny voice piped up.

"Is it okay to come out? Is she gone?"

888

Keiichi stepped through the front door and removed his shoes and jacket, still reeling from what he had done. Agreeing to go out with Kiyoshi felt like a betrayal of Belldandy, no matter how it had come about.

Dammit, if Jiroo had just kept his mouth shut...

He sighed. "I'm home," he called.

"Welcome home, Keiichi sama," Sif greeted, poking her head into the hallway from the kitchen. "How was school?"

Keiichi walked into the kitchen and found Urd sitting at the table. He knew she was going to take this badly, probably demand that he break off the date. She wouldn't let him do this to Belldandy.

"It was... weird," he answered, sitting down. "Something... well... something happened."

Urd's eyebrows arched at this statement. "Weird how?" she asked.

"Well, um, this girl came to the hangar," he explained. "She's the daughter and sister of the guys we helped rescue. She came by to thank us and then... um... insisted that I let her take me to dinner."

Urd sat straight up in her chair as if electrocuted.

"Oh, the poor dear," Sif said sympathetically. "Do you know what hospital she's in. We should send flowers."

"No, that's just it," Keiichi went on, casting a wary look at Urd. "Nothing happened. No System Force, nothing."

"That's not possible," Urd told him. "So... wait," she continued. "So what did you say?"

"Um... 'yes?'" he replied, bracing himself. Before Urd could answer, he pushed forward. "But I'm going to call her and cancel. Things just happened so fast, and we had an audience, and I really think she would have been insulted if I turned her down in front of..."

"You should go," Urd told him firmly.

Keiichi's thought pattern screeched to a halt. "I should?"

"You should," Urd repeated.

He looked from one goddess to another, suspecting a trap. Urd kept her eyes locked firmly on him while Sif was blinking at Urd in puzzlement.

"Why?" he drawled out suspiciously.

Urd shrugged and turned away, feigning indifference. "You have to think of it as practice," she told him. "Dating is just like any other skill. If you don't practice, you get rusty. You don't want to be rusty when Belldandy comes back, do you?"

The offered reason was ludicrous on its face, but then Sif came and offered another one.

"Also, Keiichi sama, how do you think she would feel?" she asked him. "It's obvious that she feels this is important, both to salve her honor and thank you for helping her family."

"Yeah, but Belldandy..."

"You're not going to marry this girl, are you?" Sif asked with a smile.

"No, of course not!"

"Then where is the harm?" Sif asked. "She wishes to thank you. Let her thank you. Perhaps in the process you'll make a new friend." She saw his uncertainty and continued. "A woman takes these things quite seriously, Keiichi sama."

Urd nodded with a smile.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

The Norn saw his hesitation and spoke again. "Keiichi, you should do this. Everything else aside, you need to get out more. Go have some fun with a girl your age."

"Yeah, but... what if..."

Urd smiled at him. "Keiichi, unless she's some kind of raging succubus, I doubt you're going to do anything that would count as betraying Belldandy. Also, if the System Force really is giving this girl a pass, this might be the only opportunity you get a for a long time."

"Speaking of which," Sif broke in, "It does seem odd, don't you think?"

"Yeah, speaking of that..." the Norn replied, rising to her feet. They watched as she picked up the phone in the hallway and dialed. A moment later, she spoke to the person at the other end.

"Urd, two-oh-four-oh-four-one-seven-four-seven," she said. "I need a status update.... System Force... Goddess Urd and Mortal Keiichi Morisato...."

She listened for another few moment and then hung up.

"They say it's working fine," she told them. "Which is just one more reason to go. Obviously, the System Force doesn't see this girl as a threat. So go."

"Well... you're really okay with it?"

"I'm fine with it," Urd told him. "Seriously, go!"

Keiichi looked to Sif to see what the other goddess thought. Sif smiled and made a shoo-ing motion with her hands.

"Well... okay," he said, almost sullenly. "I'm going to go take a quick bath before dinner."

"It'll be ready in about twenty minutes," Sif told him.

"Thanks."

They watched him walk out of the room and waited three heartbeats before turning on one another.

"What did you do?!" they both cried. "Me!? Nothing!"

They both sighed. "What did the NOSC really say?" Sif asked.

"That everything's working fine," Urd repeated. "I didn't make it up. Everything is status quo."

"Then how is this girl exempt?" Sif asked. "Do you think... she's one of _them_?"

"A demon?" Urd asked. "What's the point? And the System Force would work just as hard against them."

"We need more information," Sif said, stroking her chin. "I wish we had thought to ask her name."

"So ask," Urd said.

"But he'll get suspicious!" Sif cried.

Urd rolled her eyes. "You just have to know how to throw Keiichi off. Watch and learn." She leaned into the hallway and called out to him. "Oi! Keiichi! What's this girl's name?!"

"Why do you want to know?" he called back.

Sif started to panic.

"We want to look her up on the internet and make sure she's not a transvestite!" Urd called back.

Dead silence.

"Kiyoshi Takeda!" he called back. "And... um.... thanks!"

"Don't mention it!" Urd replied. "See? He suspects nothing." She turned and found Sif's eyes wide with terror. "Hey, come on!" Urd cried defensively. "It's not that bad..."

Sif's hand went to her heart, and Urd started to suspect that she wasn't reacting to the Norn's uncouth nature. "Sif? What is it?"

The blonde goddess swallowed. "Kiyoshi Takeda... This... I mean... This is my fault..."

Urd blinked. "_Your_ fault?" she asked. "How?"

"Kiyoshi Takeda is a client," Sif whispered to her.

"A client?" Urd asked. "So you granted her a wish..."

The blonde nodded. "About three years ago."

"Okay, small world," Urd said with a shrug. "I still don't get how this is your fault."

Sif looked up at her with a look of regret and pain etched into her features.

"Because... I... I may have unintentionally promised her Keiichi."


	12. The Oak and the Ash Tree Part 2

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine. Neither is FMP for that matter.

This chapter is dedicated to my number one fan, Ether101. We did it, buddy!

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 12**

**The Oak and the Ash Tree - Part 2**

"Sif wouldn't do that!" Belldandy cried in certainty. She gave a shake of her head, still unwilling to meet her sister's gaze. "She wouldn't."

"It's not like she _knew_, Sis," Urd told her. "It happened a month before you even _met_ Keiichi. And you of all people should know what it's like to selectively interpret what a wish means."

Belldandy broke her gaze from the front door of the school and looked at her sister. "What does that mean?"

"It means you weren't the first goddess to get away with granting the letter of a wish," Urd told her. She paused and tried to find a good way to word it. "Something I've learned from both you and Sif is that when you have a wish that can swing a person's destiny one way or another... you have to account for certain factors."

_Nine years ago..._

Urd took a quick look down the hall, looking for Keiichi, before grabbing Sif's arm and pulling her into her room. Sif followed dumbly, as if she wasn't aware of where she was or what she was doing. The Norn closed the door and quickly raised a sound-proof bubble around them.

"Okay, spill," Urd ordered. "What did you do? For God's sake, Sif, _what did you promise her?_"

"Her name is Kiyoshi Takeda," Sif explained. "Client Number Four-Oh-Two-Seven-Triple N." The blonde paced back and forth in front of Urd as she spoke, her tone like one of an accused criminal giving a deposition. "A few years ago, I answered her phone call and offered her a wish."

"Which was?"

"She wanted a good man," Sif told her. Her shaking hand went to her mouth. "Oh... Oh, Frigga's petticoats, what have I done?!"

"The exact wish, Sif! What did she say _exactly_?!"

Sif looked up at her. "'I wish that I would meet the perfect man for me.'"

Urd sighed in relief. "Okay, that's not so bad."

"Not so bad?!"

"Well she didn't ask to marry him, right?" Urd argued.

Sif stared at her in shock. Urd went on.

"She wished to meet the perfect man. That's Keiichi, right?" Urd asked. "So they've met. Wish fulfilled."

"You don't get it," Sif whispered. "You don't grasp what's happened here."

"Okay, so explain it to me."

Sif looked away. "Why did she meet him?"

Urd paused, expecting a trap. "Because he happened to help rescue her brothers?"

"And why was he in a position to do so?" Sif asked.

"Because he's part of the Aeronautics Club," Urd answered with a shrug.

"And _why_ did he join the Aeronautics Club?" Sif continued.

Urd went cold. Keiichi could talk about needing a change, but they all knew what prompted it, Sif especially since it was her advice that sent him there. "Belldandy was sealed."

A tear ran down Sif's cheek. "Hild didn't seal Belldandy," she whispered. "The System Force did."

Urd regarded her for a moment. "The System Force did no such thing," she said. "It's a coincidence, that's all. Surely the System Force could come up with a better way of getting them to simply _meet_."

Sif said nothing.

"I mean, it's simply not possible," Urd went on. "There aren't even any rules about this. Not to mention, even if what you said was possible, then Keiichi's wish wouldn't have been granted in the first place."

"Actually... there is."

"Huh?" Urd replied with a blink.

Sif licked her lips. "In instances where two wishes conflict, priority is given to the first wish granted," she said. "When did Belldandy grant his wish?"

"January," Urd replied quietly. "2007."

"December, 2006," Sif whispered.

Urd bit her lip. "It still doesn't mean anything."

"But Urd... what if my actions have..."

Urd cut her off angrily. "Well, unless you can go back in time and stop yourself from answering that phone, then there's nothing you can do about it!" she said. "And we're two Norns short to try that. All we can do now... is what's best for Keiichi. And what's best for Keiichi is that he takes this girl out, has a nice time and maybe..." She stopped, unwilling or unable to go further.

Sif didn't appear to be the least bit consoled.

"What's this girl like?" Urd asked suddenly.

The question seemed to bring Sif around. "She's a very nice girl," she said. "She qualified for a wish, after all. Pretty, well-educated... she loves animals... and children. When I saw her last she was studying to become a special education teacher."

Urd said nothing. Sif continued.

"She is well-off..."

"Well off?" Urd asked. "You mean loaded."

"Indeed," Sif said quietly. "When she turned eighteen and received the money from her trust fund, she gave half of it to charity. They used it to build an orphanage in Uganda..."

The Norn put her face in her hand. "This gets better and better by the minute..." She turned back to Sif. "So what's the catch?"

"Catch?"

"You don't get a wish for being pretty and rich," Urd went on. "You have to have been wronged by life in some respect, right?"

"Not quite," Sif corrected. "But close. Kiyoshi is... unlucky... when it comes to love."

"How unlucky?" Urd demanded.

"She's never kissed a boy in her entire life," Sif replied plainly. "It's... quite sad, actually."

The Norn grunted. "As sad as a guy being with a girl for three years and never getting to second base?"

Sif swallowed. "That... that would make more sense if the System Force was giving Kiyoshi priority."

Urd sighed and started for the door. "The System Force is not giving Kiyoshi priority," she said.

"But..." Sif sighed and collected her thoughts. "Urd... I may have done a terrible thing to my best friend..."

"Yeah," Urd whispered. "That's going around." She recovered a moment later. "We're going to embrace this, Sif, understand? There's nothing we can do about the past, but we can sure as hell change his future."

Sif looked at her with wide eyes, still not believing what she was hearing. Urd started for the door.

"Urd!" Sif cried at her back. "You know something!" Urd paused at the door. "What is it?!"

The Norn said nothing.

888

She couldn't sleep, and a walk sounded good despite the cold. Throwing on a coat, Urd stepped into the backyard and walked to the stand of trees nearby. Looking up, she could make out the full moon through the bare tree branches.

_It looks so pretty sometimes._

The goddess dropped to her knees and lay down on her back in the snow, just taking in the sight as she tried to work through her feelings. Sif was taking things badly and had unilaterally decided to take personal responsibility for Belldandy being sealed. Urd, meanwhile, was too busy trying to change the future to care much about the past.

She watched a cloud go by overhead.

_I seriously need a drink,_ she thought. She wished she could figure out why this bothered her so much. A dead gypsy carny makes a dramatic prediction, almost certainly for the sake of an act, and she starts getting cagey?

_What the hell is wrong with me?_

A shadow fell over her, and she saw the black and white wings of her angel floating over her, World of Elegance's smile was compassionate but teasing.

"Oh, you have a theory, do you?" Urd asked.

The angel nodded once.

Urd let out a breath. "No, I won't deny it. I've been jealous of Belldandy, but jealous of what Keiichi _represents_, not of who he is." She bit her lip. "He's a good guy by anyone's standards. And I'll tell you this: Belldandy was _lucky_ to get him. And now Kiyoshi may be the one to luck out."

"No, that doesn't bother me," Urd replied to her angel's questioning look. "Belldandy's not coming back. If I take that gypsy at her word, then one thing I know for sure is that Belldandy is not going to marry Keiichi, and the only way that could possibly happen is if Hild keeps her promise and doesn't let her go. The way I figure it, that leaves three options."

World of Elegance gestured her to go on.

"One," Urd continued. "Keiichi waits futilely and ends up alone for the rest of his life. Belldandy would freak if she came out of her seal and found out he died alone and unhappy waiting for her. She'd blame herself."

The angel nodded sadly. She knew Belldandy as well as Urd did.

"Two," the goddess listed. "We give Keiichi a kick in the ass for his own good and _make_ him find a nice girl who will treat him every bit as well as Belldandy would. Those mortal girls are out there, and from what Sif said, this Kiyoshi girl is one of them. Keiichi finds one, gets married, raises short, bushy-eyebrowed babies and lives a good, happy, long life. Belldandy couldn't blame anyone for that but Hild, and believe me, I _will_ find a way to tag Hild back for this."

World of Elegance waited, unwilling to let her mistress change the subject.

"Option three," Urd said quietly. "The gypsy's right, and I marry Keiichi. I don't accept that. I don't accept the idea that I would betray Belldandy on that level."

The angel raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, come on!" Urd cried. "Those times I was just playing around! Trying to get a rise out of him! Trying to get him to move on Belldandy!"

World of Elegance started to count on her fingers. Urd's eyes went wide.

"Oh, the hell with you, Elegance!" she cried. "You know, I expect people to throw that kind of stuff in my face, but not my own angel! You want to hear me say it?! Fine! I'm a whore! There you go! Happy now?!"

The angel looked down at her sadly.

"Oh, is _that_ all you're saying?" Urd replied snidely. "And fine, I'll admit, if I had met a guy like Keiichi before I met Troubadour, maybe I wouldn't be such a basketcase when it comes to my love life." Tears appeared in the corner of her eyes and immediately started to freeze. "A guy like that might have turned things around for me."

World of Elegance shrugged and gave her an uncertain smile.

Urd shook her head. "Stop it. I know what you _think_ you're doing. You _think_ you're playing devil's advocate, but you're not. You're giving a voice to that tiny part of me that's attracted to Keiichi and that self-centered, selfish part of me that thinks of myself first, that part Sif was telling me about." Her voice lowered a bit. "The part of me that wouldn't think twice about taking a guy like Keiichi away from anyone else. But it's not anyone else. It's Belldandy."

World of Elegance blinked down at her with a sad and puzzled look on her face.

"What _about_ me?" Urd asked. "This isn't about me. It's about Keiichi and Belldandy."

She climbed to her feet, feeling the freezing wet slush on her back where she lay in the snow. The goddess regarded her angel critically.

"Come on," she said. "We have a lot of work to do."

888

"Hey! Anyone home!?"

Sif didn't look up as she continued to play her viola in the center of the living room, too turned into her own thoughts to hear the younger Morisato. Eventually, Megumi entered the house on her own and poked her head into the living room.

"Hey!"

The goddess blinked and looked up, the bow in her fingers coming to a stop. "Oh, Megumi san. I'm sorry. I didn't hear you."

"No sweat," Megumi replied. "My washer's on the fritz. I was wondering if I could do a load of laundry."

"Of course!"

"Awesome." The girl disappeared toward the utility room, and Sif went back to playing the instrument, searching for her spiritual center.

"Good morning," she heard Keiichi as he entered the room. "Did I hear Megumi?"

Sif continued to play. "She's doing laundry," she told him.

Urd entered the room and took Keiichi by the arm. "Sit down, Keiichi. We need to talk."

"Uh... Talk?" he asked.

"Yeah," Urd said, taking a seat across from him.

Megumi walked in from the utility room and started to root around in the fridge. "Hey guys," she said.

"Zup, Megs?" Urd replied, not taking her eyes off Keiichi. "Okay, about tonight. It's important that this be done right. So we're going to go over a few things."

"What's going on tonight?" Megumi asked, pulling a soda out of the kitchen and pulling the tab.

"Uh... nothing," Keiichi said.

"Keiichi has a date," Urd told her.

Megumi turned to him with wide eyes, and for a moment, Keiichi braced himself for a lecture.

"Kei chan... that's awesome!" she announced, becoming misty-eyed. "That's absolutely wonderful."

Keiichi eyed each woman in turn. "Yeah... why does everyone feel that way?"

Megumi sighed. "Look, I liked Belldandy too, but, and no offense, Urd, she had her shot. It's good that you're moving on."

"Yeah," Urd agreed reluctantly.

"So who is she?!" Megumi demanded, becoming more bubbly and animated by the news.

"Kiyoshi Takeda," Keiichi told her.

"Well, come on! Spill it! How did you meet?"

"Well... you know," Keiichi replied.

"He rescued her father and brothers from freezing to death," Urd translated.

"Nice!"

"It didn't happen like that," Keiichi told her.

"So what's she like?" Megumi asked.

"She's... nice," Keiichi replied.

Urd turned to her. "She's beautiful, nice and rich."

Megumi turned to her brother. "What is it about you anyway?!"

"I guess I'm just lucky," Keiichi murmured.

"Back on topic!" Urd ordered. "This isn't some NIT softball player with a butch haircut..." She narrowed her eyes and grinned. "No offense, Megumi..."

"Whatever," Megumi muttered.

"This girl has culture, class," Urd went on. "You need to step up your game."

"Wait," he said. "How do you know all this?"

"I have spies everywhere," Urd assured him. "Now, then, you're going to need a suit. Do you have a suit?"

"Yeah, I have a suit," he said.

Urd paused, something in the back of her mind prompting her to take some form of action. "Go put it on," she ordered.

"Urd..."

"Just do it," she said.

He rolled his eyes and went to put on his suit.

"You think he's ready for this?" Megumi asked her as she leaned against the counter.

Sif entered the room as Urd chewed on the question. "He'll be fine."

"Okay, here it is," Keiichi announced, entering the room.

Sif brightened visibly while Urd and Megumi recoiled in horror.

"That's your suit?!" Urd cried, pointing at the green leisure suit monstrosity the boy was wearing.

"Oh, God, Kei chan!" Megumi cried. "You look like Uncle Akio... _after_ he died!"

"Har har..."

"It's lovely, Keiichi sama!" Sif cried.

"Thank you, Sif."

"Vetoed!" Megumi and Urd cried simultaneously.

"Fine," Keiichi groaned. "What do you suggest?"

Urd grinned. "First, we get you a pair of black leather chaps..."

"Vetoed!" Megumi and Sif cried.

Keiichi sighed. "Great," he said. "Three women and not a one with an ounce of fashion sense."

"Hey!" Megumi protested.

"Fine, what do you suggest?" Keiichi asked.

"Blue jeans and a leather jacket."

"Oh, yeah," Urd said sarcastically. "He can roll up a pack of smokes in his shirt sleeve and play with a switchblade while they wait in line at the drive in!"

Megumi twitched.

The boy sighed again.

"Hold on a second," Urd said, walking to the phone. "Luckily I know someone who can help us."

888

If there was one thing that could be counted on, it was that Teletha Tessatarossa took the words "fashion emergency" with the same seriousness as a fire. It wasn't an hour later that the lingerie CEO was striding into the living room as if she owned it, a short, bespectacled man in tow.

"All right!" she announced, shrugging off her long, black coat and tossing it to Megumi, "You can all relax now. I'm here."

"Thank Jesus," Megumi muttered.

The platinum-haired woman pointed to the older man. "This is my personal tailor, Ho Chi. He's from Hong Kong, and I'm sorry to say he doesn't speak a word of Japanese. So I'll translate, all right?"

"Thanks for coming, Teletha," Urd told her. "I appreciate it."

"Oh, don't worry, Urd," the girl told her with a wink. "I'm already thinking of ways for you to pay me back. Now, Ho Chi is going to fit Keiichi with a suit guaranteed to scream 'suave, sophisticated and great in bed!'"

"I don't think it really needs to say all of that..." Keiichi began with an upraised finger.

Every female in the room ignored him, nodding along to what Teletha was saying. Keiichi sighed in resignation.

"Now, shall we begin?" Teletha asked. She turned to Ho Chi and raised her voice. "HO CHI! NEED SUIT!" She pointed at Keiichi. "FOR KEIICHI! SUIT FOR KEIICHI! HAI?"

Ho Chi sighed and muttered something in Chinese before stepping up to the boy with a tape measure.

"You speak impeccable Chinese," Urd noted with an arched eyebrow.

"Language opens all the right doors, Urd," she replied.

"This really isn't necessary," Keiichi told them, his hands held out to his sides.

Teletha blinked. Urd held up the green jacket he had worn earlier. The CEO looked visibly ill. "Oh, yes it is!" she cried. She raised her voice. "HO CHI! EMERGENCY! CHOP CHOP!" She clapped her hands urgently. She turned back to Urd. "Burn that!"

"So where are you taking her?" Megumi asked as she nursed a beer.

Keiichi paused. "Well... she's actually taking _me_ out... so I haven't given it much thought."

"Well, you can't count on that," Urd told him. "You need a back-up date plan."

"Like what?" he asked.

"Ooh!" Megumi cried suddenly, reaching into her pocket. "Check it out. Last night I'm cruising home from work, and I come upon this van with a flat tire." She pulled out a pair of what looked like tickets. "It was some acting troupe from the University of Nekomi." She rolled her eyes. "Can you believe it? A van full of guys, not one of them knew how to change a flat."

Teletha, Urd and Sif all stared at her.

"None of you know how to change a flat, do you?" Megumi noted with narrowed eyes.

"I have a driver," Teletha noted.

"I don't drive," Urd threw in.

"I'm a girl!" Sif added.

The other three women glared daggers at her.

"Anyway!" Megumi went on. "This one guy, Toshio... he plays Mercutio... gave me these tickets to their performance tonight." She handed them to Urd since Keiichi was busy.

"Awww," Urd said with a grin. "He was probably hoping to see you again. Sure you want to part with them?"

"Yeah, that's what a girl needs, a boyfriend who can't change a tire," Megumi told her. "I could also use a guy who can't change a light bulb or kill spiders."

"She has a point," Sif noted.

"Quite," Teletha agreed.

Ho Chi turned to them and started speaking in Chinese. He held up three fingers, and Teletha nodded.

"Ho Chi says it'll take about three hours. Is that enough time?"

"Plenty!" Urd replied.

"Wonderful!" Teletha replied. She turned back to the tailor and held up three fingers. "THREE HOURS! SUPER GOOD! HAI?! THREE HOURS!"

Ho Chi grinned and bowed. He turned and started putting his measuring tools away.

"Come on, Teletha, Sif'll make us some tea."

Keiichi watched the women disappear in the kitchen. His eyes narrowed, and he turned to Ho Chi.

"You really don't speak Japanese?" he asked.

"Oh, I do," he replied, causing Keiichi to blink in surprise. "I find it's just easier this way."

888

"Thank you, Sif," Teletha told the blonde as the goddess served her a cup of tea.

"Okay," Megumi said. "So, the back-up plan is that he takes her to see Romeo and Juliet and what else?"

"Excuse me?" Sif broke in timidly. "But... well... shouldn't Keiichi sama be a part of this discussion?"

Urd, Teletha and Megumi looked at one another. "I don't see why," Teletha told her.

"So, anyway," Megumi went on. "The theater and what? Dinner?"

"Dinner will work," Urd said. "Keep it simple."

"Okay, so suit, dinner, theater. Anything else?" Megumi asked.

"A haircut?" Sif suggested.

"No," Teletha piped in. "He should keep it long and messy. It says, 'Yes, I'm wearing a suit, but on the inside I'm a bad boy looking to take you for the ride of your life!'" She sighed. "Sagara san has that look. Yes, he cleans up well, but he still has that look that says, 'If you keep looking at me like that, I'm going to break you over my knee!'"

Urd sipped her tea. "You mean that guy who went to work for Chidori's Secret?"

Teletha turned to her with tear-filled eyes. "Why must you be so cruel to me?!"

888

While Urd, Megumi and Teletha discussed Keiichi's date, the boy in question opened a text book and started studying. Date or no date, he still had exams next week.

"Keiichi sama?"

He looked up and found Sif standing in the doorway, a concerned look on her face.

"What's up, Sif?"

She knelt down across from him. "I wanted to make sure you were all right with this."

He smiled. "Sure," he told her. He cocked his head toward the kitchen. "They're doing all the work. All I have to do is show up and eat."

"No, I meant about going out with Kiyoshi san," she said. "Remember, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

He arched an eyebrow. "Wow... usually the girl gets this speech," he told her.

"All I'm saying is that you shouldn't feel pressure from anyone about this."

"Sif," Keiichi began. "You're the one who told me to trust Urd. And I am."

"I know, and you should," she said. "I'm just saying that... Keiichi sama... Just that..." She looked from side to side before reaching across the coffee table and grabbing his hands. "YOU DON'T HAVE TO FALL IN LOVE WITH HER! YOU DON'T! NOTHING IS WRITTEN! NOTHING! UNDERSTAND?! NO MATTER WHAT SHE SAYS! YOU ARE UNDER NO LEGAL OR METAPHYSICAL OBLIGATION TO BE WITH HER OR..."

At that point, she cried out. Urd had grabbed her by the hair and was dragging her into another room. "Don't mind her, Keiichi, she just had too much sugar in her tea this morning."

"THE FUTURE'S NOT SET, KEIICHI SAMA!" Sif screamed as she held onto a door jam. "THERE'S NO FATE BUT WHAT WE MAKE FOR OURSELVES! EEEEEK!"

The door shut.

Keiichi sat there for a moment...

Then went back to studying.

888

Urd pushed Sif into her bedroom and counted to three before trying to speak to her.

"Calm... down..." she told the blonde.

"I am!" Sif replied. "I am calm! I am! See? See how calm I am!?"

Urd watched the goddess tremble.

"Uh huh." She sighed. "Look, you're obviously a little..."

"I can't take this, Urd! I can't!" Sif suddenly cried. "I broke up my best friend and her boyfriend! I've doomed them both to a life of bitter unhappiness!"

"Sif, you did no such thing..."

"I have to know," Sif said, starting to hyperventilate. "Desdemona! I can ask Desdemona!" She started for the door.

"No!" Urd cried, jumping in her way. "No, that's a bad...bad.... horrible... bad idea!" Urd told her.

"But she can tell me for sure, Urd!" Sif argued. "She can put my mind at rest one way or the other!"

"No! No, she can't!" Urd replied. "You know what can put your mind at rest? Shutting up and never bringing this topic up again!"

"Urd! I must know! I must know that Keiichi sama and Belldandy end up together!"

"No, you don't have to know!"

"I do! Now please stand aside!" Sif made to push past her, and Urd acted. Leaping upon the other goddess's back, she dragged her down to the floor.

Sif screamed in fright and fought back, rolling over the Norn and struggling to her feet.

"What are you..."

She screamed again as Urd tackled her. The two rolled on the floor, thrashing against one another.

They froze, Urd pinning Sif to the floor, as the bedroom door opened.

"Hey, Urd, do..." Megumi broke off as her gaze fell on them.

She stared at them. They stared back.

"Huh," Megumi remarked. "Yeah. So... softball team... butch haircut... yeah, _now_ who's the lesbian?" She stepped out and shut the door.

"Urd! What in the name of Freya's garters are you doing?!" Sif cried.

"Look, Sif," Urd said, rising to her feet. "You can relax, okay? You didn't break up Belldandy and Keiichi. Just take my word for it."

"I know you're trying to reassure me, Urd," Sif said. "But how can I know for sure? How do I know that I haven't set Keiichi on a course to marry this girl while Belldandy lays sealed."

"Sif! He doesn't marry Kiyoshi!" Urd shouted.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW?!" Sif cried back.

"BECAUSE HE MARRIES ME!"

Sif froze, rooted to the spot in shock. Urd refused to turn her gaze, meeting the blonde's stare head on.

"At least... that's what Desdemona claims," Urd finished quietly.

"Urd..." Sif whispered.

The Norn sat down. "You're freaking out because you have a bad feeling that you might... _might_... have _accidentally_ broken up your best friend's relationship," she whispered. "I have it on good authority that I'm going to take my _sister's_ boyfriend away from her." She looked up at Sif with haunted eyes. "I'm going to take the only love she ever had for a man... crush it like an empty beer can... and throw it over my shoulder."

Sif sat next to her. "Almighty best and greatest, Urd," she breathed.

"Belldandy's not coming back, Sif," Urd said quietly. "Not in time. Keiichi can and _should_ be happy... but not with _me_. I can't let that happen. I can't do that to her. So he _has_ to connect with this girl. If not her then the next one. Or the next one. Or the one after that."

The blonde rested a hand on her shoulder. "Urd... if Destiny has spoken... then she's spoken."

"No." Urd shook her head. "That's bullshit. I don't believe it. Belldandy is _supposed_ to be with him. That's how it's meant to be."

"Is it?" Sif asked, her voice barely a whisper. She could hear the fear in her friend's voice, the anguish.

"Why else would they meet the way they did?" Urd asked. "Why else would he make the wish he did?"

"Because _you_ don't grant wishes," Sif answered sympathetically. "Because maybe the only way to get _you _down here... was through Belldandy."

Urd shook her head. "No. Bullshit. You're trying to tell me Destiny set this up?"

"Maybe," Sif allowed. "Or maybe things just turned out this way for no reason whatsoever. I wouldn't put it past her, though. You know how she is."

"Irony gets her off," Urd bit out in answer.

"Crassly put, but yes," Sif sighed. She looked at her friend with pity. "What will you do?"

"What I just said I'd do," Urd told her. "I'm going to send him on his date with Kiyoshi and hope for the best."

"And if it doesn't work out?" Sif asked. "What then?"

Urd stood up and went to the door, pausing with her hand on the door frame. She thought for several moments and turned back to Sif.

"Then," she croaked. "I'll leave."


	13. The Oak and the Ash Tree Part 3

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 13**

**The Oak and the Ash Tree Part 3**

"Aunt Urd! Aunt Urd!"

The Norn broke off her story and turned as a young girl with short hair ran up to them and launched herself at Urd.

Urd caught the girl in mid-jump and spun her around. "Hey there, Kiddo!" she cried in greeting. "How was school?"

The girl hopped down and shouldered her backpack. Looking up, she noticed the other woman talking with her aunt. Doing as her mother taught her, she bowed low.

"Hi!" she said. "My name is Sachiko Mizuno. What's yours?"

Belldandy bowed right back and smiled. "I'm Belldandy."

"This is your Aunt Belldandy," Urd told her. "She's just come back from a long trip."

The younger goddess winced at the sound of the lie. She didn't approve of lying, especially to children.

She turned her gaze on the girl's smiling face and blinked. "She looks just like Megumi san," she whispered.

"Spitting image according to Keiichi," Urd agreed.

Belldandy felt her heart ache just that much more. "It's not just Keiichi's life I missed out on," she said. "I missed years from all our friends' lives."

"Aunt Urd, did you bring any magic?" Sachiko asked.

"Sure I did, Kiddo," the goddess replied, kneeling on the sidewalk next to her. "Have you had a snack yet?"

Sachiko shook her head.

"What would you like? Apples or pears?"

"Apples!"

Urd smiled and outlined the shape of an apple on the sidewalk, including the stem and a little leaf. Reaching down, she rapped her knuckles against the shape and reached through the concrete, pulling out a shiny red apple.

Sachiko giggled and clapped at the trick as Urd handed the piece of fruit to her.

Belldandy blinked as she suddenly realized something important.

"You used your powers in front of her," she gasped.

Urd smiled sardonically. "Yeah... it turned out I wasn't the best at keeping things secret. Don't worry, I'll get to that." She stood up and offered Sachiko her hand. The girl took it, eating the apple with the other. The three started down the street.

"Keiichi san is all right with that?" Belldandy asked.

"Megumi took it better than we thought," Urd confessed. "Toshio still doesn't know." She looked down at Sachiko and squeezed her hand. "It's our little secret."

Urd saw Belldandy's face and knew the explanation wasn't cutting it. "Megumi is family," she said simply. "And if Keiichi and I can't trust our family, who can we trust?"

Belldandy looked at the ground. "Who indeed?"

_Nine years ago..._

"So, big date tonight," Megumi teased as she sat down across from her brother. She wasn't quite sure what she had just walked in on between Sif and Urd, but she was pretty liberal. It didn't bother her.

Keiichi looked up from his book and gave her an embarrassed smile. "Yeah, I guess so."

She put her chin in her hands and offered him a smile. "You don't seem that enthused. You sure you're ready for this?"

"No," he answered immediately. "But if Urd thinks I should..." He shrugged.

"You put a lot more faith in her than you used to, huh?" Megumi asked, her mind going back to the night Urd came to her apartment looking for him.

"Yeah, well I promised Sif I would," he told her with a grin. "And... I admit... it might be fun... And if it makes Kiyoshi san feel better, then... well..."

"Just try to have fun, Kei chan."

He bit his lip, a sea change coming over his face.

"I can't do this," he whispered.

She caught his eyes and looked at him firmly. "Look, Kei chan, I don't want to sound like a bitch here, but here it is. Belldandy is gone, and it's time for you to get back on the horse. Yeah, she was the love of your life, she broke your heart. A million guys tell that story every day."

"Situation is a little different, Megumi" he bit out, knowing his sister didn't know the whole story, but taking offense on Belldandy's behalf anyway.

"Kei chan, new school, new guy, abducted by aliens, it doesn't matter," she retorted. She saw him open his mouth to retort and cut him off. "As God as my witness, it makes no difference," she said. "Because it's not about her anymore. It's about _you_. You're a good guy. You deserve a good woman. You can't let shitty circumstances derail your life."

He didn't look convinced.

"Look, if you don't believe me, believe Urd," she continued.

"I just get this awful thought in my head," he said. "That halfway through our date Belldandy's going to come back and see me..."

Megumi smiled. "Come on, Kei chan," she said. "You think Urd would be pushing this if she thought Belldandy was coming back?"

Keiichi blinked and gave her a surprised look, and for a moment, Megumi wasn't sure why.

888

Urd started down the hall and was almost surprised when Sif suddenly appeared next to her.

"You have to tell him," she whispered quickly.

"The hell I do," Urd argued. "You know how much that would freak him out?"

"He deserves to know, Urd!"

"I'm sorry," Urd shot back sarcastically. "I must have missed the part in Karmic Justice class about how mortals have a _right_ to know their futures. Almighty best and greatest, Sif, it's bad enough that _I_ know."

Sif kept voice a just above a frantic whisper. "But if he believes Belldandy is coming back..."

"That's why we have to give him these little nudges," Urd interrupted. "I'm with you, Sif. I'm on your side. But telling Keiichi this is only going to screw worse with his head." She took a breath. "Now swear to me that you won't tell him."

"Urd..."

"Swear it, Sif," Urd ordered.

"I am a goddess first class," Sif bit out. "I don't take orders from you."

"It's _my_ contract," Urd retorted icily. "Now swear it."

Sif looked away, obviously angry with this turn of events. "What makes you think he'll choose another?" she asked.

"Who else is he going to choose?" Urd replied. "Swear."

Sif hung her head. "I swear I won't tell him."

Urd nodded. "I guess that will have to do."

888

"Let's see it!" Teletha demanded. "Let's see the new, improved Keiichi Morisato!"

Keiichi stepped into the living room in a grey suit that cost more than his Beemer. Megumi whistled while Teletha clasped her hands in the kind of joy only one who appreciates fashion could possibly comprehend.

He held his hands out to his sides nervously. "Is it okay?" he asked.

"Pimp, Kei chan!" Megumi assured him.

Urd nodded appreciatively. "I gotta admit. It says exactly what we want it to say."

"Which is?" Sif asked her.

"Wanted," Teletha answered her. "Good times. Apply within."

Keiichi started to sweat.

The CEO turned to Ho Chi. "HO CHI!" she shouted into his face. "VERY GOOD! SUIT VERY MUCH GOOD! HAI!" She bowed twice. Ho Chi smiled and bowed back before starting for the door, throwing Keiichi a resigned and knowing look as he did so.

"So when are you taking off?" Megumi asked him, putting the Shakespeare tickets in his suit coat pocket.

"A few minutes," he said. "Hey, Megumi," he added, catching her before she could turn away. "Thanks."

Megumi smiled. "Compliment her outfit, Kei chan," she said. "Girls like that." She started to walk away and paused. "And for the love of God," she threw back at him. "Stay away from the damn museum!"

He grinned.

Sif stepped up to him and adjusted his coat. "She's a..." She caught herself and corrected. "I'm certain she's a very nice girl, Keiichi sama," she said. "But don't be disappointed if your path and hers do not permanently converge."

"It's just dinner, Sif," he assured her. "I'll be fine."

She nodded and walked away. Urd stepped up next and gave him the once over.

"Well," she said quietly. "If she could see you now."

"Yeah," he whispered back, knowing exactly who "she" was.

Urd held up a glass vial filled halfway with an amber liquid. "This is for you. It's a special blend of cologne I mixed up for you. I call it, 'In Heat.'"

He started to turn red.

"If you think things are going well," she went on, putting it in his coat pocket. "Just step into the bathroom, dab some on your neck and..." She paused for a moment and smiled. "... Let nature take its course."

Keiichi cleared his throat. Urd turned to go.

"Urd," he called her back. She looked at him expectantly. He dropped his voice to a whisper. "Why don't you think Belldandy's coming back?" he asked.

She smiled, but Keiichi had seen that smile before. It was the "Whatchu talk'n 'bout, mortal?" smile she liked to give when she was hiding something.

"Come on," he pushed. "Out with it. What makes you think Desdemona's wrong?"

He saw something pass over her eyes for just the barest of moments. She gathered herself and gave him another smile. "I'm not worried that she's _wrong_, Keiichi," she said and would say no more. She walked away.

888

"Oooh! So it's true!"

Keiichi looked up and found the Tower Bunnies coming to a halt as they passed him. Standing outside the hangar, he had been waiting for Kiyoshi for about ten minutes and still had another five to go before she arrived.

Cake smiled at him. "Big date, huh? We figured with your curse and all you weren't going to risk it."

"It's not a big date," he told her. "She's just thanking me for helping her family."

"Then why isn't Razor going too?" Kit Kat asked with a wink.

Keiichi cleared his throat but rallied. "Because she ran away, remember?"

"You look real handsome, Keiichi," Yomiko told him.

"Yeah! Go get her, Tiger!" Cake cried.

The attention was making him feel more nervous, not less. "Uh... thanks," he said.

Before they could say more, a black limousine pulled up. The driver hopped out and opened the door for him.

Nervously, he leaned over and looked inside. The Tower Bunnies followed him and gasped at what they saw.

Kiyoshi, decked out in a full-length red sequined gown, sat there, her hair done up in a lavish style. Her eyes danced behind her glasses, which seemed almost out of place on her face. She smiled.

"Hello, Keiichi san," she said, her voice immediately reminding him of Belldandy. "I'm sorry I'm late."

Cake blinked. "HOLY SHIT, YOU'RE _GORGEOUS!_" Yomiko quickly grabbed her and covered her mouth.

Kiyoshi started to blush furiously. "Oh," she said, glancing down at her lap. "Th... Thank you," she said.

Keiichi swallowed nervously. "She's right... You're beautiful."

She looked up at him and smiled brightly. "Thank you, Keiichi san." She gestured to the seat across from her. "Please."

"Oh! Yeah!" he said, realizing he was still standing outside and letting the heat out. He stepped into the limo and watched the Tower Bunnies' amazed expressions as the door closed.

"Your friends seem very nice," Kiyoshi offered.

"Yeah," he agreed. "They are."

"I hope you don't think me too forward, but I made reservations at Aragawa," she said.

He whistled. "That's pretty pricy," he said.

"Oh! It's on me!" she assured him quickly. "I have an in there, you could say."

"An in?"

She cleared her throat, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "My father owns it."

"Ah," he said.

Keiichi wasn't sure what to make of her yet. She didn't seem as comfortable with flaunting her money as Sayoko was. If anything, she reminded him of what Sora Hasegawa would be like after winning the lottery, torn between wanting to use her wealth and wanting to hide it.

He decided to change the subject in the hopes of making her more comfortable. As the limo pulled away, he glanced out the window. "How are your father and brothers?" he asked.

"Doing much better," she said, brightening at the shift in topics. "They're very grateful to you. They're still in the hospital, recovering, but wanted me to tell you that they intend to show their appreciation fully once they get out."

"That's nice," he said, feeling stupid. He knew once Hotaru found out, she'd start compiling a wish list. "So... are you in school or do you work or..."

"Or do I just sit around all day counting my money?" she finished for him. She looked uncomfortable again, and Keiichi could almost see her berating herself in her head. "I work here and there," she said.

Sif said she was a good person, and she definitely reminded him of Belldandy. Which meant she didn't just sit around counting money all day.

"What kind of charities?" he asked, taking the gamble.

She looked up at him with wide eyes, as if he just pulled a pony out of a top hat.

"Children's organizations in the third world," she answered. "Building schools and wells and things like that. I...I don't go myself. My father won't allow it. But I do some managing on this side of the organization."

Keiichi congratulated himself on guessing right. "I thought so," he said.

She blushed and looked out the window. Turning back to him a second later, she went on the attack.

"That's a very nice suit," she commented.

"Thanks," he replied.

"What's her name?"

"Huh?"

She smiled. "The young lady who picked it out for you," she elaborated. "What's her name?" At Keiichi's deer-in-the-headlights look, she went on. "You don't strike me as the kind of guy who spends his time worrying about what suit to wear."

"Fair enough," he relented with a smile. "I suppose the woman most directly responsible is named Urd."

"Urd?" she repeated. "Norwegian?"

"A little north," he admitted.

888

Urd unscrewed the cap on the bottle of sake and poured herself a cup. She lifted the cup to eye-level and stared at it. Keiichi was out on his date, and she should be happy, almost proud. And yet, as she sat at the kitchen table, she couldn't help but feel that something was wrong.

She stared at the cup, her mind going over it again, focusing on it so much that she almost missed the fact that Sif had sat down across from her.

"Urd," she whispered. "About before..."

The Norn continued to stare at the cup. She could feel it in her gut, a sense of... wrongness. She didn't reply to Sif, who took the silence as an invitation to continue.

"You are right," Sif went on. "It's your contract, and I have no place to interfere in it." She bit her lip. "But I must know... What if you're wrong? What if we do this and Belldandy comes back? What if Desdemona is exactly what you claimed she was; a fraud?" Tears came to the blonde woman's eyes. "We're taking away the love of her life..."

"Is it really?" Urd whispered, her eyes never leaving the cup. She could almost feel what was wrong, it was right there in front of her. "When I first took on the contract, Freya told me something. She said... that I forgot how different time is for us than it is for them." Her lips quirked up for a moment, but it passed. "When she said it, it was an admonishment, telling me that I had gotten in over my head and that I would be here for much longer than I thought, but if you turn the coin..." She turned the cup in her hand so she could see the floral pattern adorning the opposite side. "... there's the impact on Keiichi's life as well, a life I... took responsibility for."

Finally getting some answers, Sif leaned forward. "Go on," she urged.

The Norn's eyes didn't leave the cup. "A goddess lives for eons," Urd told her. "If we lose one opportunity for happiness, we wait for another one, like waiting for the next train on the platform. Another is going to come. But for mortals... the opportunities for happiness appear and disappear so quickly... and there may not be another train that comes in time, especially with love."

"I don't follow you," Sif confessed.

"You see, Sif," Urd went on, "A goddess can close her eyes and picture herself, her life, five hundred years from now, and it will roughly be the same as it is now. But a mortal can't do that. The best they can do is picture themselves twenty, thirty years down the line, and when they do, their lives are vastly different." She shut her eyes. "When a man like Keiichi closes his eyes and dreams of twenty years down the road, he _wants_ to see a wife and children. He _wants_ to know that he seized those opportunities, that he seized _life_, and took from it all it had to offer him."

She shook her head, but her eyes remained on the cup. "Belldandy never realized that," she whispered, that answer finally dawning on her. "Three years, Sif. Three years and they never made it to second base. In her mind it didn't matter. In her mind, they had an eternity for that, time to savor the passing moments. It never occurred to her that those three years brought Keiichi three percent closer to the end of his life, that it was sand through an hourglass he couldn't just turn over again. Belldandy would have been content to keep things as they were for the rest of Keiichi's life, never realizing that those moments _must_ be condensed. And Keiichi, who loves her _so much_, would have waited patiently without a complaint."

Urd's eyes broke from the cup and found Sif's. "And if we don't push him, he'll wait anyway... until one day he'll look back on his life and realize all the things he wanted he could have had if he was just willing to let her go. A man like Keiichi _deserves_ those things. He _should_ be a husband and father if for no other reason than he'd be wonderful at it."

"But she may come back," Sif argued quietly. "What if she comes back? What will you say to her if she comes back a year from now, and Keiichi sama is engaged to Kiyoshi san?"

Urd lowered the cup. "Probably... 'don't hit me,'" she quipped.

"And what if it _is_ you he's supposed to be with?" Sif asked.

Urd's eyes locked onto her in almost a panic. "It's not," she said firmly.

"If Destiny has arranged this, has orchestrated this from the beginning, then it makes no difference how many girls you set him up with," Sif argued. "He will invariably come back to you."

"Then he will invariably be taking a lot of cold showers," Urd bit out. "I'm not betraying my sister just because Destiny says I should."

Sif stood up. "In which case you invalidate your own argument," she said. "For Keiichi would still end up alone, waiting for a goddess who will never give him what he wants."

Urd glared at her and rose to her feet. "I'm going to get a drink," she said, turning away from the sake.

The blonde watched her grab her coat and walk out, sighing at the tragic absurdity of it all. She knew Destiny personally, and knew from her own experiences that she was not a goddess to trifle with or attempt to evade. Irony did, indeed, get her off, and somewhere right now, she was watching this play out and probably laughing her ass off.

888

Keiichi watched the waiter refill his wine glass, feeling very uncomfortable with the level of service the restaurant was providing. It was one of those places he used to dream about taking Belldandy to. Now he was sitting in one and wasn't even sure which fork to use.

Kiyoshi eyed him from the other side of the table. So far their conversations had been almost like fencing matches, each of them probing the other side for what they weren't saying as opposed to what they were.

He couldn't help it. Although he knew he shouldn't, he was constantly comparing her to Belldandy. One major difference that stood out was her forwardness. She grappled onto something he said and would continue to probe it, to draw it out until he satisfied her.

She caught his eye and leaned forward. "May I ask you a deeply personal question?" she asked.

"Sure," he said with a shrug. "Doesn't mean I'll answer."

"Do you believe in God?" she asked quietly.

"Yes," he answered immediately.

The answer seemed to surprise her. "That was fast," she noted.

"Fast?"

She nodded. "Usually a person will hem and haw and complain that it's a very personal question." She looked at his neck. "And there's no crucifix around your neck."

He shrugged. "Let's say I've had a few personal experiences that don't let me doubt the Almighty's existence."

"I've had one of those myself," she said with a smile. "As a matter of fact... I suspect that experience has brought us together."

Keiichi mentally nodded, putting it together. She had almost lost her family and now she was on a date with the guy who had saved them. It was Destiny in her eyes.

Even so...

She saw the change in expression and blinked. "Something wrong?"

"I guess you could say Destiny hasn't been kind to me lately," he told her.

"Well," she drawled, picking up her wine glass. "Things change." She smiled.

888

"What can I get you, Miss?"

Urd rested her elbows on the bar and took a breath. "I don't want straight liquor," she said. "You got anything... I don't know... happy? Like with an umbrella or some pieces of fruit?"

The bartender smiled. "Okay, I can do that." He went to the blender and started compiling ingredients. The goddess tapped the bar with her knuckles while she waited.

"Urd?"

She turned and saw Megumi walking up to her. The coed took the seat next to hers.

"Get a beer?" she asked the bartender. She turned back to Urd. "So what brings you here?"

Urd shrugged. "Keiichi's on his date. Thought I'd get a real drink." As she said this, the bartender put a large glass filled with a green liquid in front of her. It had three colored umbrellas in it and a rubber alligator clinging to the side. A red crazy straw poked out from between the umbrellas.

"What's up, Fiji?" Megumi asked the drink. "Been awhile."

Urd took the glass and started sucking on the straw. Megumi watched her, a note of concern entering her expression.

"So," she began. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Urd told her. The bartender put a beer in front of Megumi, and the coed raised it to her lips. "Absolutely nothing. Everything's great."

"Great, huh?" Megumi asked.

"Great," Urd affirmed. "Keiichi's out on his date, and I'm... here."

Megumi looked down at the bar and bit her lip. "Urd... I never said thank you."

Urd grabbed the umbrellas and straw in her fist and ripped them out of her drink in an expression of anger. "What for?" she asked with a note of bitterness in her voice.

"For staying," Megumi told her. "When Belldandy left."

The goddess grunted. "Heck, I didn't get invited to some college," she said, incorporating the old lie she had rehearsed so many times.

"Yeah, but you didn't have to stay either," Megumi told her. "Kei chan... well... you saw first-hand how screwed up he was afterward. A lot of guys do stupid things on the rebound. You kept him out of that."

"Yeah, well he's still on the rebound," Urd told her, downing the tropical drink in one go.

"True," Megumi shrugged. "But he's out there again, and he's on a date with a nice girl, not some skanky dorm rat or worse... Sayoko."

Urd said nothing. Megumi turned and examined her eyes. Yeah, she was sure of it. There was something there.

"You took care of him for me," Megumi said quietly. "In ways I couldn't. And I _need_ you to know that I'm grateful for it. He's going to be okay now. And it's because of you. I'm not afraid for him anymore."

"I am," Urd confessed. "I'm afraid I'm going to do something stupid, something selfish... and I'm going to screw up his life."

"I don't think so," Megumi said. "Belldandy was his first real love, but I think he's stronger now because of it. Whoever he ends up with is going to benefit from that."

"Hey, Megumi san!"

She blinked and turned to see a tall man in glasses making his way through the bar's crowd to get to her.

Megumi gave a groan and tried to turn away. "Oh, for fuck's sake," she muttered.

"Who's your friend?" Urd asked.

"Remember that actor I told you about, Toshio?"

"Yeah?"

"That's him." Megumi turned as the young man stepped up to them. "Hey, didn't think I'd ever... ever... see you again," she said.

"Yeah, I looked for you at the performance but I didn't see you," Toshio said with a smile. "Funny running into you here, huh?"

"Yeah, it's fate," Megumi said.

"Hey, a bunch of us are going to a party," Toshio said. "You wanna go?" He saw her hesitation and pressed. "It'll be fun."

Megumi bit her lip and smiled... just a bit. "Okay, why not?" She turned to Urd. "You wanna come?"

Urd shook her head. "I'm having too much fun here."

"Well, okay," Megumi said. She rose to leave.

"Megumi," Urd called back. "What if it was me?"

"Huh?"

"Would you still think he'd be okay if he ended up with someone like me?" Urd asked. "Hypothetically speaking, I mean?"

Megumi smiled. "I think I'd actually feel better," she said. "At least I _know_ you care about him."

Urd digested this as she and Toshio walked out of the bar.

888

When she reentered the temple, she saw Sif poke her head around the corner and instantly deflate.

"Oh," she said. "I thought it was Keiichi san."

"He's not back yet?" Urd asked, checking the clock. It was eleven p.m. "Guess he scored," she said, trying her best to sound casual. "Good for him."

"What if he's in trouble?" Sif asked.

"What trouble can he be in, Sif?" Urd tossed back. She made her way to the living room and sat down, turning the TV on and flipping quickly through the channels.

"Well... he might be in _some_ sort of distress," Sif pouted.

Urd's eyes didn't leave the TV screen, her mind awhirl with her own confused thoughts even as her casual bravado continued on autopilot.

"'Distress?' or _undressed_?" she asked.

"Urd..."

"He's fine, Sif," Urd told her. "Go to bed."

The blonde looked miserable. "Will you be okay?" she asked quietly.

"I'm fine," she replied quickly. "Seriously, Sif, go to sleep. You look like Hell."

The other goddess's hands quickly went to her face and hair. "I do not," she whimpered.

"You do," she assured the blonde. "Go on."

Sif bit her lip and walked down the hall to her room.

Urd let out a breath and continued flicking through channels. Her eyes flashed to the left, just for a second, but enough to make her look.

The door to Belldandy's room was open.

That wasn't surprising, really. Sif was probably cleaning it. But for some reason she just couldn't stop looking. She stood up and walked toward it, feeling like the drunk you always see in the movies, the one who can't let a fight go.

_Just for a second..._

_C'mon, let it go!_

She stepped inside, her fingers reaching to turn on the light.

The room was suddenly awash with light, illuminating her sister's things still just as they were when she left that last day. She stepped into the center of the room and looked around. Her sister's room was surprisingly spartan. Where Urd had decorated and filled her room with things that made her feel at home, Belldandy had not. Aside from her futon, a mirror, a small table and her cross-stitch project, there wasn't much.

There was one thing. Sitting on the table was a framed photo of Keiichi. She picked it up and examined it. There were still fingerprints on the glass where her sister had touched the photo, probably every night before bed. The closest thing she had ever done to a goodnight kiss.

Her fingers trailed across the top of the frame, trying to fathom the depth of what Belldandy felt for him.

Turning, she started for the door and switched off the light. She paused at the door.

"I'm sorry it's come to this," she said, turning away.

"Are you?"

Urd's head whipped back, her eyes searching the darkness. "Belldandy?"

"Are you sorry?" she heard again.

The light coming in from the hallway reflected off the mirror, but it wasn't Urd's reflection that stood there. Belldandy's shadowy visage glared back at her.

"Belldandy," Urd whispered.

"You promised me, Neesan," the reflection accused. "You promised me you'd take care of him for me."

"I am," Urd defended.

"You're giving him away to the first woman who asked," Belldandy told her. "You haven't even seen her."

"I don't have to see her," Urd argued. "Keiichi..." She trailed off. "... thinks highly of her."

"I can't believe you would take him from me," Belldandy told her. "Take him from me and give him away. Don't you understand how precious he is to me?"

"He deserves a chance to be happy," Urd told her.

"So do I."

It didn't occur to Urd until just then that she wasn't really talking to Belldandy. She was talking to herself. She turned and stalked out of the room.

Sitting down in front of the TV, she willed herself to not look back at the bedroom, the mirror within staring at her as she flipped through the channels.

_I'm not doing this,_ she thought. _ I am not entertaining these thoughts._

She should go, she thought. Pack up and leave right now. Sif would take care of Keiichi.

_But it's not Sif's responsibility. Sif never swore to look after him, you did._

Besides that, the System Force would surely destroy every TV for two hundred miles if it thought it would keep her from leaving.

She didn't understand why she was even feeling like this. She never had feelings for Keiichi before Belldandy was taken.

_Maybe it's like that thing we saw in that movie,_ she thought. _Florence Nightingale Syndrome? A nurse falling in love with her patient?_

_I'm not a nurse._

_You know what I mean. He was a wounded bird with a broken wing, and you healed him. Now you can't just let it go._

_He needs me!_

_He doesn't need you._ The voice in her head was being cruel now. So cruel that it took Urd a moment to realize it. _He's over the initial shock and pain. He doesn't need you to hold his hand. You are NOT his goddess and never were. Go home._

She sat there in silence, flicking through the channels.

_Go to Hell,_ she thought back at the voice.

888

Kiyoshi's hand ran gently down the angle of the left canard as she examined the flying machine.

"It's almost like it's alive," she noted quietly. "Like a dolphin of the sky, sleek and elegant."

_Hey! Thanks!_ Keiichi heard from the Shinden by virtue of having his hand on the wing at the time. He pulled his hand away and approached the woman.

"The Aeronautics Club rebuilt her," he explained. "It was actually built in World War Two, just before the end of the war. We found her under the Auto Club clubhouse a few years ago."

"Amazing," she whispered. She turned to him and slowly removed her glasses. "Keiichi san, thank you for a wonderful night."

Keiichi nervously scratched the back of his head. "I should be thanking you," he told her. "Everything was great, and I... well... I haven't been out in awhile."

Kiyoshi studied him intently, as if trying to find a good way to say something. Seeming to find what she was looking for she spoke.

"Did you ever have a wish, Keiichi san?"

"A wish?" he replied quickly. "Oh... yeah. I mean... everyone does, right?"

She smiled. "I once wished that I could meet the perfect guy for me," she told him. "Someone who is kind and brave and... well... handsome." She paused. "I... don't get out much either," she confessed. "But when you and I crossed paths, something told me to make the extra effort. That's why I've been so forward. I just... felt... that this was an important moment."

"I see," he told her, looking down.

She stepped up to him and took his chin in her hand. "I'd very much like to see you again," she said. Closing her eyes, she leaned up to kiss him...

888

It was the sound of someone bumping into a wall that woke her. The first thing she saw when her eyes opened was the TV screen, still displaying the same movie she was watching when she fell asleep albeit at a much later scene.

Turning, she saw Keiichi trying to sneak into the hallway.

"Keiichi?" she mumbled. She yawned. "What time is it?"

"Yeah, sorry," he whispered. "I didn't mean to wake you up. It's a little past two."

"Are you just getting in?" Urd asked.

"Yeah," he confessed.

"Oh," she said, turning back to the TV and picking up the remote. "So... how did it go?" she asked.

She didn't turn as he sat down next to her, folding his coat onto his lap. "I'm sorry," he told her quietly.

"Sorry?" she asked. "About what?"

"It didn't go well," he confessed.

She blinked. "It didn't? But... the suit... the cologne..."

He smiled and shook his head. Handing the vial of cologne back to her, he explained. "She was nice and very pretty," he told her. He bit his lip. "But she's not what I want."

She turned back to the TV. "You wussed out," she accused.

Keiichi shrugged. "Maybe," he told her. "Maybe I'm just not ready. Sorry."

The goddess shook her head. "Don't be sorry, Keiichi," she said. "It's all about you. You don't have to care what I think. I'm not your goddess," she added with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Keiichi stared at her for a moment. "Yes, you are," he told her quietly.

She froze for a moment as a warm feeling threatened to overtake her body. She slammed the door on it as quickly as she could.

"What are you watching?" he asked, looking at the TV skeptically.

"The Sound of Music," she snorted.

"You're obviously not qualified to use this," he said, snatching the remote away from her.

"Hey!" she cried indignantly.

He flipped through the channels and stopped at the image of a very odd car in what was obviously an old TV show. "Knight Rider. Now that's the best show on TV."

"Oh, God," she murmured. She bit her lip and tried to squelch a smile. "I think there's a pack of popcorn in the cupboard. You want some?"

He smiled at her.

"Yeah," he said. "I think so."

888

Belldandy looked over at her sister as they walked.

"But... you said things between them went well."

Urd's lips quirked up in a smile. "Yeah," she said. "But at the time _I_ didn't know that."

The younger Norn swallowed at the implication. "You... you believe he was waiting for you?"

Urd looked up, and although she wouldn't face her sister, there was a proud and happy tone in her voice.

"I like to think so." She turned to her sister, and her expression demurred. "Not that it's true," she admitted. "I like to think that even back then there was a connection between us."

Belldandy digested this quietly.

Urd started to fidget, made nervous by her sister's silence. "Besides," she tossed in. "It was months before..." She swallowed. "Well... before I started to acknowledge what I was really feeling... even if I still tried to... suppress it."

"What do you mean?" Belldandy asked.

If she was nervous before, now Urd looked downright uncomfortable. "A few months later... I was... I had an accident," she told the goddess.

"Accident?"

"And for awhile, I had to rely heavily..." She paused and just admitted it. "... Totally... on Keiichi." She bit her lip. "And I learned that... well... out of all the people in Creation that I knew... he was the only one I _could_ rely on. I mean _really_ rely on. In ways and for things that are hard to explain."

Belldandy said nothing, waiting for the hitch.

Urd sighed. "And he saw me naked."


	14. Don't Move

Disclaimer: AMG is not mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 14**

**Don't Move**

Belldandy awoke with a start, clinging to the soft blue blanket that covered her. She looked from left to right and found herself in her own room at the temple. Her hand went to her face.

A dream! It was all a dream!

Jumping out of her futon, she rushed out of her room and dashed for Keiichi's bedroom, stopping as she heard someone in the shower. Not caring about decorum at the moment, she opened the bathroom door and walked toward the shower curtain.

Reaching out with a shaking hand, she drew back the curtain.

Keiichi cried out and quickly covered himself. "Belldandy!"

The goddess leaped forward and hugged him. "Oh, Keiichi san!" she cried. "I had the most horrible dream! I was sealed! And you married Urd! And..."

"Belldandy!" he cried, grabbing hold of her arms. "It's okay! Belldandy! Belldandy? Belldandy..."

"Belldandy? Are you okay? Belldandy?"

She opened her eyes and found Urd and Sachiko's worried faces looking down at her.

"Urd?" she whispered. "What..."

"You fainted," Sachiko told her. "Are you okay?"

Belldandy's heart broke a little in her chest. For a moment, she thought it had all been a bad dream. Now she had to deal with it all over again.

"Aunt Belldandy," Sachiko began worriedly. "Are you okay?"

"Hai," she replied, climbing to her feet but pointedly ignoring Urd's offered hand. She took a breath. "You were saying?"

Urd looked uncomfortable again. "Yeah, anyway... It all started the day Sif left."

_Eight years ago..._

"I'm sorry I have to leave so soon," Sif apologized as she dashed from one side of the room to the other, throwing things into her suitcase. "Heaven isn't good at providing notice, unfortunately. When they call, they call and that's all there is to it."

Keiichi regarded her quietly. "I'm sad to see you go, Sif."

She paused and turned to him, smiling. "Oh, Keiichi sama," she said. "I'm sorry to have to leave. But the Help Line needs granters, and they say I've already spent too much time here."

The goddess resumed packing. "I'm not sure how we're going to get along without you," he told her.

"Oh, you'll be fine," Sif told him, zipping up her suitcase. "Urd is here... and you picked up a few cooking skills," she added.

He didn't look consoled by this.

She stepped up to him and straightened his collar for him. "Destiny works in a certain way, Keiichi sama," she told him. "And for me to be called back now tells me it's necessary for me to be elsewhere... for my own self and for you."

"Will you be back?" he asked.

"In_deed_!" she replied happily. She hefted her suitcase. "All set. I just need to say goodbye to Urd..."

"Here," he said, offering to take the suitcase. "You go say your goodbyes and I'll take this outside for you."

"Thank you, Keiichi sama," she responded, releasing the green bag to his care.

Stepping out of the bedroom, they went in separate directions, Keiichi for the front door, Sif for Urd's room. When she arrived, she knocked gently and waited for permission to enter.

888

As Keiichi was saying farewell to the blonde goddess, Urd was carefully... _carefully_... measuring out grains of a red powder into a beaker.

"One," she whispered. "Two... three... _stop!_"

She watched as one last grain dropped into the blue solution in the beaker and start to fizzle. The goddess quickly corked the concoction and stood the glass container upright on the far side of her workbench.

The Norn grinned evilly, proud of herself for coming up with this plan, dangerous as it was. She had spent so much time in awe of her demonic mother, she had overlooked certain facts about her, and that had been Urd's fault. She now realized that she had to recognize certain truths about the demoness holding her sister hostage, and among those was that despite the power she held, she was still a demon, and subject to the same inherent weaknesses they... and goddesses... possessed.

In that light, this new plan was incredibly simple. The concoction fermenting on her workbench was called a "Basilisk's Sting." Notoriously difficult and dangerous to make, it was a potion that affected demons and goddesses the way nerve gas did mortals. While not fatal, it worked on the same principle in that it attacked the divine particles that ferried information throughout the immortal nervous system. As such it was harmless to mortals but would paralyze even the most powerful demon. All she had to do was draw Hild out, give her a whiff and then pull Belldandy's seal off her powerless body.

She heard a knock at her door and turned. "It's open!"

Sif slid the door open and stepped inside. She gave the Norn a sigh and a sad look. "It's time."

Urd frowned and stepped forward, hugging the other goddess tightly.

"Thank you for _everything_," she said.

"Will you be okay here?" Sif asked her. "Alone, I mean?"

Urd nodded.

"Urd," Sif began quietly, "I want you to know something before I go."

"Okay, shoot," the Norn invited.

Sif looked up and into her eyes. "No matter what happens, I'll stand by you," she promised. "And... should things go other than a way you expect... if you need me to... I will explain it to Belldandy."

The sentiment, as misguided as Urd thought it was, touched the Norn. "Sif," she whispered. She hugged the blonde again. "You don't have to worry about that. But thank you."

Sif wiped her eyes and checked her watch. "Oh! I have to go! I'm going to be late, and Freya sama simply abhors that!" She turned and started for the door, her hip knocking against the workbench as she rushed for the exit.

Urd's eyes went immediately to the beaker, which started to rock back and forth...

She dove for it...

"Bye, Urd!" Sif called as she closed the door behind her.

As the blonde ran for the front door, she completely missed the sound of breaking glass and the thump of a body hitting the floor.

888

Sif squeezed Keiichi's hands once more before picking up her suitcase and walking across the water of the koi pond until she stood at its center.

"Farewell, Keiichi sama," she said sadly before a green light enveloped her and pulled her down into the water.

Keiichi watched until the glow faded and Sif was gone.

He sighed. "And so she walked out of our lives forever," he whispered. Turning, he ambled back toward the house. It was Saturday, and he had a list of things he had to do.

888

Urd groaned as she opened her eyes and found the shards of the beaker on the floor a foot from her face. She was lying on her stomach on the floor; the last thing she remembered was diving for the beaker as it fell from the table.

She started to push herself up and blinked, confused, as her arms refused to obey her. The goddess tried again, willing her limbs to move, but they wouldn't even twitch. She found she was able to turn her head, and her eyes caught the glint of light off the smashed beaker.

"Oh no," she breathed.

The goddess fought panic as she tested each limb but only her neck and head had any movement at all. She could feel the floor below her, so she wasn't numb. Her body just refused to obey her commands.

_Breathe,_ her mind counseled. _Just relax and breathe. There's something else wrong. If the Sting worked then you wouldn't even be able to blink..._

She swallowed at this thought. The potion wasn't ready yet.

So what else about its effects were different?

She heard the front door open and close.

"Keiichi," she croaked out. Summoning her wits and her breath, she tried again. "Keiichi!"

The footsteps in the hallway stopped.

"Keiichi!" she called again. "Help!"

She heard rapid footsteps heading toward her room.

"Urd?!" She closed her eyes in relief.

"In here!" she called back.

She heard the door open, unable to see it as she had landed facing away from it.

Suddenly she was on her back as Keiichi rolled her over.

"Urd?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

"Okay," she said nervously. "This is kind of embarassing."

"What? Did you break something?" he asked in concern.

"Keiichi, I can't move anything below my neck," she told him quietly.

He blinked in astonishment. "You mean you're paralyzed?" He looked from side to side. "How... How did this happen?"

"One of my potions spilled," she explained quickly.

"Well, why the heck were you playing with something like that?!" he demanded, his concern showing through his anger.

She grit her teeth. "Because it would have let us just pluck Belldandy off Hild's chest, you idiot!"

Chastened, Keiichi shut his mouth.

Urd closed her eyes again. "I'm sorry... Look, the bottom line is I can't move so I need..." She stopped and licked her lips, hating to ask for help like this. "I need you to help me."

He nodded quickly. "Okay. You want me to call Skuld or Peorth or..."

"No!" she said quickly. She couldn't bear the thought of Peorth or any other goddess seeing her like this. "No, look, it's not that bad. I just need you to move me, okay?"

Keiichi stood up and looked around. Finding what he was looking for, he stepped out of Urd's view and started setting up her futon. Urd listened to him work, still trying to get her arms or legs to answer her. Finally, Keiichi stepped back into view.

Urd braced herself mentally to be dragged across the room.

"Okay," she began. "Just be careful that you..." Before she could finish, Keiichi knelt down, placed his arms under her, and lifted her off the floor as if she weighed no more than a baby.

The goddess was surprised. She'd never pegged Keiichi for having much upper body strength. Her head lolled back over his arm as he carried her to her futon.

"Have you been working out or something?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered with a smile. "Every day with Razor."

He placed her on the futon as gently as he could and knelt next to her.

"Okay," he said. "Now what?"

She took a breath. "The way the potion's designed, this should all wear off in about forty-eight hours," she told him.

"I sense a 'but,'" he confessed.

"The potion wasn't finished fermenting," she told him. "If it had, I wouldn't be able to talk or even blink. It wasn't done yet." She caught his concerned eyes with her own. "So... I don't really know how long this will last."

He stared at her for several moments. "I'm calling Sif."

"No!" she cried. "No, please! I'll never live this one down! Come on, Keiichi!"

The mortal didn't look convinced.

"There's nothing any of them could do anyway," she went on. "If you call them down here, they're going to tell you the same thing... then laugh their asses off and tell everyone in Heaven about this. Come on, Keiichi... Please? This is embarrassing enough...."

He sighed. "Okay," he said. "But only for the forty-eight hours," he warned her. "After that, if you're still like this, we're calling for help."

"Okay," she agreed. "Thanks, Keiichi."

The boy sighed. "Okay... so now what? Do you need anything?"

She bit her lip. "Well... I'm kind of thirsty..."

"Okay," he said. "I'll get you some water." He grinned a bit. "Don't go anywhere."

She growled as he walked out the door. "Wow, I never saw that one coming..."

Urd strained to listen for his movements in the other room, once again struck by just how helpless she was. A silvery strand of hair was blown by a breeze right across her left eye, irritated it. She pursed her lips and tried to blow it off her face, but soon found it utterly useless.

Fortunately, Keiichi returned a moment later. Kneeling next to her, he placed a glass of ice water on the tatami map nearby and took a look at her, biting his lip as he tried to figure out the best way to get the water from the glass into her mouth without drowning her.

"Okay," he muttered. Reaching under her back, he lifted the goddess into a sitting position and sat behind her, propping her up with his body. Reaching out with his left hand, he took hold of the glass and lifted it to her lips. "Okay, real slow," he cautioned.

Urd drank slowly, cursing herself for allowing a goddess as powerful as herself to be placed in this situation to begin with. Finally, the glass was empty, and the boy pulled it away from her lips. She instinctively tried to raise her hand to wipe the last drops from her lips and cursed again when her arm once again failed to respond.

"Thanks," she practically growled. It wasn't that she wasn't grateful, she just hated that he had to do it at all.

If Keiichi took offense, he gave no sign. "No problem." He climbed out from behind her and gently lowered her back onto the futon. "What else?"

"Nothing," she said quickly, eager for this humiliation to just end.

"You sure?" he asked. "I could move the TV in here, if you like."

She bit her lip. "Okay, but then that's it."

He left the room again and returned a few minutes later with their ancient TV in his arms. He put it on the floor nearby and plugged it in. Hitting the power button on the remote, he started to flip through the channels.

"Change it. Change it. Change it," Urd ordered after each flip. "Change it. Change it. Change it. Change it. Change it. Change it. Wait.... No, change it. Change it. Change it. Change it. Change it..."

"We now continue our eight hour Winter Storm marathon..." an announcer declared.

"STOP! STOP! STOP!" she cried, not believing her luck. "Finally, a break!"

Keiichi smiled. "Okay. Just give me a call if you need anything, okay?"

She sighed. "Thanks, Keiichi. I will."

888

Keiichi left Urd to watch TV, but left her bedroom door open in case she needed to call for him. He stopped in the living room and started to pace a bit. Urd could say he shouldn't call Heaven all she liked, but he still didn't like the idea of not getting Sif or Peorth to come down here and help.

Still, he'd promised Urd, and unless her condition got worse, he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on this. For him it was only a matter of inconvenience, but for her the stakes were much higher.

He started a mental checklist. For the next two days he couldn't leave the house. He wouldn't risk leaving her alone and something bad happening. Walking into the kitchen, he checked the fridge and cabinets, making sure they had enough groceries to last the next few days.

Keiichi decided that as long as he was stuck at the temple, he might as well get to work on some of the chores he had been ignoring for awhile. He started a list and found it woefully long. Sighing, he started to get to work.

888

Urd managed to endure six hours on her futon, calling for Keiichi only when her thirst became so overpowering, she had felt she had no choice.

_Only forty-two more hours to go,_ she thought. _I hope..._

Something tickled the back of her mind, though. She was forgetting something...

Call Teletha and let her know she wouldn't be available for any shoots? No, there was no need. No one from Whispers had called her this week.

Shopping? Laundry?

She bit her lip and looked at the ceiling.

_Oh no,_ she thought as it hit her. _Come on! Give me a break!_

It was a need so basic, she wasn't sure how she had forgotten about it except that she subconsciously chose not to remember it. For mortals, it was optional... though highly encouraged by anyone within range of their sense of smell. For goddesses, however... it was required at least once a day.

She racked her brain for a way around it, or some way to do it herself. The goddess raised her head and smacked it against the pillow in frustration.

"Keiichi," she called, resigning herself to the embarrassment that was to come. "Keiichi!"

The goddess heard the sound of his footsteps and saw him poke his head into her room. "Need something" he asked.

She swallowed and almost sent him away. What could happen, right? But it was a requirement. Even when Belldandy and Keiichi's hands were sealed together, her sister had done it, forcing Keiichi to sit next to her, though in another room. This, however, was going to be much worse.

"Yeah," she told him, still hesitating. "Um... kind of a funny thing, actually..."

"What is it?" he asked innocently.

"Okay, don't get bent out of shape with this, all right?" she began. "But... um... remember when we first got our contract and we couldn't be further than a few feet apart?"

"Yeah," he drawled out, sensing a trap.

"Remember one of the things I had to do... daily?"

The boy went pale for a moment, then started to blush a deep crimson. "You mean you need to..."

"Purify, yeah," she answered. "I need to bathe, Keiichi... and... well..."

"Oh," he said simply. "Okay. Um... Yeah, okay," he finished, unable to think of anything else.

She listened to him stammer, embarrassed, for another few minutes. Finally, he seemed to pull himself together.

"Okay," he said firmly. "I'm going to go fill the bath." He disappeared a moment later.

She waited, mortified by the entire situation. How did she let it get to this point?

Sif! She'd have Keiichi call Sif, and Sif could come down and do this!

Except that Sif was likely out on assignment by now.

Okay, how about Peorth?

Vetoed without comment.

Skuld?

She took a steadying breath.

_This won't be so bad. It's just Keiichi. I trust Keiichi. He's a gentleman. Always has been. I have about as much to fear from Keiichi seeing me as... well..._

_Troubadour?_

_Not... funny._

"Okay," Keiichi said, reentering the room and startling her from her thoughts. "I think we're set."

She cleared her throat. "Okay. Let's do this."

He knelt next to her and lifted her from the futon.

As he carried her down the hall, she swallowed and spoke again. "So... how's school?"

He stopped and started to laugh, unable to help himself. "Are you trying to change the subject?" he asked incredulously.

"I... I thought it would make things less awkward," she admitted.

Keiichi started walking again. "School... school's good."

"Good," she replied. "That's... good."

They entered the bathroom, and Keiichi put her down next to the tub. Neither of them said anything for several moments, and Urd gave honest thought to just asking him to dump her in the tub fully clothed and leave her to drown. Before she could, a lightbulb went off over Keiichi's head.

"I got it!" he said, rushing out of the room. She lay there, waiting for several minutes. When he returned, the white silk scarf Teletha had given her was in his hands.

"Okay, this will be easy," he assured her as he folded the scarf a few times and tied it around his head, covering his eyes. "See? No problem."

She looked up at him skeptically. "Keiichi," she began. "Don't get me wrong, I give you points for originality, but... you've never taken a woman's clothes off with your eyes open. What makes you think you can do it with them closed?"

"How hard could it be?"

"Have you ever even _seen_ a bra?" she demanded.

"I've done laundry," he defended, still blindfolded.

"Okay," she relented. "We'll give it a shot."

It took all of sixty seconds for Urd to regret her decision.

"Stop! Stop!" she cried as Keiichi's knee rested on her hair while he tried to work the snaps on the back of her shirt. "Just stop!"

Keiichi sat up and bit his lip in frustration.

"This isn't working," she sighed.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, pulling off the blindfold.

She sighed again. "Okay, this is stupid," she told him. "We're both adults. We've known each other for years. I trust you. So let's just do it, okay?"

He took a breath and nodded.

She watched as he tentatively reached out and pulled her up by the shoulders to reach the snaps on the back of her shirt. The goddess took a breath as he then pulled the shirt up and over her shoulders, revealing her bra.

Keiichi worked as quickly as he could, averting his eyes as much as possible and concentrating on the individual tasks at hand. He wasn't undressing Urd. He was unfastening a button or pulling a hand through a sleeve. Anything but undressing a goddess.

When he was finally done, his eyes caught sight of her, and he froze, his face taking on a deep shade of red.

Urd had a reputation for beauty, one that was well-earned. To say her body was beautiful was like saying the Pacific ocean had a little water in it if you knew where to look.

He heard her clear her throat and quickly looked away. "I...I...I'm sorry!" he said quickly.

"It's okay," she replied softly. He still wouldn't meet her eyes. "Really, it is, Keiichi."

"Okay, so..." he began before coughing. "Um... I'll just... yeah..." He knelt down and picked her up again, looking away as much as humanly possible for placing her gently in the tub. He draped her arms over the side of the tub so she wouldn't slip below the water. "There... There we go," he told her.

Urd closed her eyes and reveled in the feeling of the water.

"I'll check on you in a few minutes," Keiichi told her, almost desperate to leave.

"What if I slip?" she asked him. "I won't be able to call for help."

Keiichi looked at her in desperation, matching her expression.

"Just ten minutes," she begged.

"Okay," he relented, sitting near the door. The two were silent for several minutes while Urd soaked, their thoughts resting on the experience.

For Keiichi it was much weirder than it was before. He felt he had crossed a line in his relationship with... well... any woman. Despite several close instances, he had never seen Belldandy naked... not that he was trying or anything. But for the guy who had been in a relationship with a woman like Belldandy for three years without ever finding out if the carpet matched the drapes, the fact that he had seen his girlfriend's sister naked was kind of freaking him out.

"Keiichi?"

He blinked and shook his head. "Huh?"

"I said I'm ready," she said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said, rising to his feet. "Just thinking."

"Look, Keiichi... I know this is kind of weird but..."

"Yeah, I'm sorry," he told her. "I didn't mean to stare or... yeah..."

"Keiichi, look at me."

He looked at her eyes, and she smiled. "It's okay. Call it your tip for helping me."

"It doesn't bother you?" he asked.

"It bothers the hell out of me," she admitted. "But when you take a look at the guys on the list of people who've seen me without clothes on, I have to admit, you're not the worst name on the list."

He broke a smile. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," she told him. "Of course... if it would make you feel better, fair's fair, you could..."

"No," he said firmly.

"Come on!" she teased. "Look but no touch. It's not like I can grope you..."

"Are you done?" he asked. "I'll get some towels and some clothes."

888

It was the footsteps that caught her attention first. Opening her eyes, she turned her neck toward the door. The moonlight coming through the open window bathed the room in a soft, pale light. She strained her eyes, trying to see through the darkness of her open door.

"Keiichi?" she whispered.

She watched the mortal boy enter her room and quietly pad toward her, falling to his knees next to her.

"Keiichi?" she asked quietly. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

"Urd," he breathed, swallowing dryly. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you... and after tonight... I can't _not_ say anything anymore..."

"Keiichi..." she whispered breathlessly. Her eyes widened as he leaned over, his eyes closed. Suddenly his lips were brushing against hers and...

She woke up.

Urd stared up at the ceiling, her eyes wide.

"So what the hell was _that_ all about!?" she hissed at the ceiling.

Her face was flushed and she couldn't even wipe the sweat from her brow.

Where did that come from?

She could see World of Elegance in her mind's eye smirking at her.

"Oh, don't you start," she warned.

Elegance looked around innocently.

"That's _not_ what it was," Urd seethed.

The angel gave her an "of course it wasn't" look. That was the point, wasn't it?

Urd blinked and swallowed. _Was_ that the point? In her condition, she couldn't prevent what Keiichi did in her dream... so she couldn't be blamed, right? A guilt-free kiss was much more palatable than one where she knew she was betraying her sister.

But if Keiichi was the one betraying Bell, well that was just fine and dandy, wasn't it?

Elegance arched an eyebrow.

The goddess swallowed again. "Yeah," she answered. "Yeah, I did."

The angel smiled.

"Oh, shut up," Urd snorted. "You make it sound like I planned it this way."

Elegance's smile only intensified. No, Urd didn't plan it...

And that's why it works so well.

888

The sun was already peeking through the window when he knocked on the doorframe and poked his head inside.

"Good morning," he said. "How are you doing?"

Urd let out a frustrated breath. "Still nothing."

"Well, there's still another day to go, right?" he asked. "Just hang in there."

"Thanks, Coach," she remarked, rolling her eyes.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. He disappeared again, and when he returned, he was carrying a bowl. "You want breakfast?"

"Sure."

He pulled her into a sitting position and sat behind her again, holding the spoon to her lips so she could eat. The arrangement still irked the goddess. It made her uncomfortable that a being as powerful as herself had to be fed like a baby. To take her mind off it, she decided to try to make conversation.

"So, how's the training going?" she asked between spoonfuls.

Keiichi smiled. "I do my first show solo in a month," he told her.

"That soon?" she asked.

He shrugged, though she couldn't see it. "Hotaru graduates this semester. That means I'm the only demo pilot."

"Nervous?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered truthfully. "But in a good way."

She smiled and sipped at the spoon offered to her. "You've changed a lot in the last year," she noted. "You're more sure of yourself than you used to be."

Again he shrugged and offered her another spoonful. "Maybe. You gonna be there?"

"Where?"

"My first show," he elaborated.

"Teletha usually has some of her models go to hand stuff out," she said.

"Yeah," he replied. "But... well... I'd like you to be there."

"Awwww!" she cooed. "That's so sweeeeet!"

Keiichi's eyes narrowed for a moment, followed by an evil grin. He held the spoon in front of her face and made airplane noises.

"Here comes the aiiiiir-plaaaane! In for a laaaaandiiiing!" he sang.

Urd's eyes narrowed dangerously. "As soon as I can move again," she growled. "I'm setting you on fire."

"No temper tantwums," he scolded in baby talk.

"And then rubbing you in salt," she finished darkly.

He decided to cut her some slack and gave up the game. When the bowl was empty, he lowered her back down to the futon.

"Okay," he said, climbing to his feet again. "I'm going to go outside and do some work on the roof. We need some new tiles. You going to be okay for awhile?"

"Sure," she said. "Could you turn on the TV... and maybe check in every half hour to make sure I don't need the channel changed?"

He turned on the TV. "Sure. If you need anything, just yell. I should still be able to hear you."

She watched him walk out of the room and settled in to watch TV. It wasn't long before she the sounds of footsteps on the roof above her followed by hammer blows, making it difficult to hear what the actors were saying. She instinctively reached for the remote and growled when her hand once again failed to act as she commanded.

"I hate this!" she cried, her head flopping back onto the pillow. She promised herself that when she got the use of her limbs back, assuming she ever did, she wouldn't take an act as simple as changing a channel for granted ever again.

Her attention snapped to the ceiling as she heard a loud thump followed by several quick thumps moving toward the back wall.

Then silence.

She lay there for a moment, her mind working through the ramifications of what she just heard. Then it hit her.

_Oh, Almighty, he fell!_

"Keiichi!?" she called out.

No answer.

"Keiichi! Can you hear me!" she yelled.

Could he be hurt? Was he lying in the grass on the other side of the wall, out cold, bleeding, his bones broken, his neck?

"Keiichi!" she cried out. She looked down at her body and tried to will it into action.

_Come on, dammit!_ she urged. _Get up! Move! Move, damn you! Get up, you stupid, lazy bitch! Get up! He's hurt! He needs you! Get up!_

Her body didn't seem to care. She howled in frustration and tried again, desperate to get up...

"What's wrong?!"

Her head snapped toward the door and found Keiichi's head poking in from around the doorframe.

She let out a relieved breath and closed her eyes.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" she demanded.

"Um..."

"Are you goofing around up there?!" she cried angrily. "I thought you fell!"

"Oh," he said quietly. "No, I... I just dropped my hammer," he said, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to worry you."

"You didn't worry me," she snapped, turning her head away from him. "And keep it down! I can't hear the TV."

"Oh, sorry about that," he apologized again. "I'll just knock it off for today."

"Good!"

"You need anything?" he asked.

"Peace and quiet," she growled.

"Okay," he said. "I'll be in the other room."

With that, his head disappeared from sight, leaving Urd to try to calm down. The thought that he might be hurt, in pain, possibly dying while she lay there paralyzed, unable to help him, made her feel utterly worthless. She bit her lip hard to fight back tears.

She was supposed to be the tough one, dammit! The sister that didn't break down! The one that didn't get down, but got mean!

Now she was the cripple, the goddess that had to depend on a mortal boy to feed and bathe her as if she were an infant, and when the people she cared for most were in trouble she was useless!

_Stop it_, she chastised herself. _He didn't fall. Everything's fine, and by this time tomorrow you should be back to normal. So stop bitching._

She sighed and tried to take her own advice. Everything _was_ fine. Keiichi _was_ safe.

So there was nothing to worry about.

Right?

888

Keiichi hobbled into the living room and sat down on the floor. Undoing his shoe laces, he grimaced as he gently pulled his left shoe off, feeling the pain from his turned ankle shoot up his spine.

He winced, noting that the ankle was already starting to swell.

It's not like he told a _complete_ lie. He _did_ drop his hammer... it's just that he ended up going after it all the way down to the ground, landing on his ankle and rolling it until it made a rather disconcerting crunching sound. He didn't want Urd to know. It would only put more stress on her.

The mortal boy pulled his other shoe off and hobbled into the kitchen to get an ice pack.

888

"Dinner time!" Keiichi announced as he stepped into her room.

She watched him walk toward her and noticed the limp in his step despite his best efforts to hide it. He sat down next to her and pulled her into a sitting position again.

"You're limping," she noted.

"I was studying and my foot fell asleep," he replied.

"You fell off the roof," she said darkly.

"Well... just once," he admitted. He spooned up some rice and put it to her lips.

She didn't take it. "Why didn't you say anything?" she demanded.

"Because you were freaking out," he accused her. "Now eat."

"Don't tell me what to do!" she shot back. "And I did not freak out!"

"You freaked out," he said with certainty. "And I didn't want to worry you. Now are you going to eat this or not?"

"Not!"

He growled and moved out from behind her, letting her flop back onto her pillow. He started for the door.

"DAMMIT!" she screamed.

The noise was so loud and so sudden that he froze in his tracks in the doorway. Turning, he stared at her wide-eyed.

She stared up at the ceiling, breathing heavily. "I'm sorry," she told him, her eyes locked upward. "Do you know how... how... _weak_ this makes me feel?"

He said nothing.

"Do you know how powerful I really am, Keiichi?" she asked. "Oh, Belldandy and Peorth... they have the licenses... but me? _I_ have the genes. Between our father and Hild, I managed to inherit more raw power than any other goddess in Creation. If they ever gave me a first-class license, I could reduce Earth to a pile of goo." A tear formed in her eye. "Now look at me. I can't feed myself, bathe myself... You could have broken your back out there, and I wouldn't have been able to do a damn thing about it."

Keiichi stepped back inside and sat down next to her.

"What if this doesn't wear off?" she asked him, her eyes still glued to the ceiling. "What if I'm like this forever?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "I guess we'll deal with it."

"'Deal with it?'" she asked with a laugh. "You'd be stupid to."

"Huh?"

She finally turned her gaze toward him. "If this doesn't wear off, promise me you'll call Freya and have her send a new goddess."

"Urd," he began reproachfully.

"No, I mean it," she said. "A goddess is not meant to be a burden. They're supposed to make the lives of mortals better."

He took a deep breath and leaned back, supporting himself on his hands. "Do you remember the night I tried to kill myself?" he asked her quietly.

The goddess craned her neck to look at him, but didn't answer.

"Yeah, it wasn't an accident," he confessed. "I didn't 'accidentally' get confused and take too many pills. I knew what I was doing. I suppose a goddess who was just here to give me what I want would have sat there and let me slip away. But instead, you pried my jaws open and rammed your fingers down my throat so I'd puke. Then afterward, you scooped what was left of that crap out of my mouth."

She watched him as he stared up at the ceiling.

"The only reason I still _have_ a life is because of you," he went on. "Maybe goddesses are supposed to make lives better, but you didn't do that because you were a goddess. You did it because you were _family_. You took care of me." He finally turned to look at her. "And I'll do the same for you. Every day for the rest of my life if I have to. I'll take care of you, Urd. It's your turn."

The goddess swallowed back emotion. "No wonder my sister loves you," she whispered.

He coughed, not liking being reminded of Belldandy. "If you're not going to eat, I'm going to get your bath ready."

She found herself turning a bit red, but she knew it was all right. "Are you sure you can?" she asked. "With that ankle?"

"I'll be fine," he said, waving the question away. "I'll be right back."

Urd heard the water running in the tub and waited for him to return. When he did, he knelt next to her and placed his arms beneath her. She noticed he hesitated for a moment and took a few steadying breaths. When he lifted her up this time, she heard the hiss of pain-filled breath as his ankle protested. But a few moments later she was on the bathroom tile, and a few moments after that, she was in the tub.

He sat near the door and waited quietly, lost in thought.

"Keiichi?" she called quietly.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"You're a good man," she told him.

He was silent for a moment. Then...

"You're not so bad yourself."

She closed her eyes and smiled. "Okay, I'm done."

He knelt next to the tub and reached in, lifting her out of the water as gently as possible. For a moment, Urd decided to not be embarrassed or ashamed of the act. Instead, she took a breath and pretended just for a moment that Keiichi really was her boyfriend taking care of her like he promised. And it wasn't weird for him to cradle her in his arms or for her to be naked in front of him. It was like that because it was supposed to be, and that made everything okay.

Her eyes snapped open as he started to wobble. He hissed in pain and then cried out as his ankle gave way beneath him.

Urd cried out as they crashed to the floor together in a heap, the goddess landing on top of him as the back of his head cracked against the tile. Her head landed on his chest, and she craned her neck to see if he was okay.

Keiichi was out cold.

"Keiichi?" she asked. "Hey! You okay?"

He didn't reply. She put her ear to his chest and found his heart beat, felt his chest rise and fall beneath her. He was okay, just unconscious.

She sighed. "You big dummy."

The goddess assessed her situation. She was naked, dripping wet, on top of her sister's boyfriend, and she was likely to be like this for awhile.

She rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes.

"We're quite the pair, aren't we, Keiichi?" she asked quietly.

Perfectly comfortable with her current situation, she fell asleep on top of him.

888

Keiichi opened his eyes to find sunlight from his bedroom window illuminating his room. He had a splitting headache, and his ankle was throbbing. He lifted his hand to the back of his head and found a bandage there.

The fact that he was in his room and not the bathroom finally caught up with him. He sat up in his futon just as Urd walked in.

"Good morning," she said cheerily. She carried an ice pack wrapped in a towel in her hand and seemed fully capable of moving again.

"You're okay," he noted stupidly. "It wore off."

"Of course it did," the goddess told him as if she never had a doubt. She knelt next to him and lifted the blanket off his leg. He looked down and found another ice pack on his ankle, this one mostly melted. "Now," she said, replacing the pack. "You stay off this foot and rest today. If you need anything, just call."

He smiled and started to get up. "That's okay, I'm fi..."

Her hand on his chest and a firm look in her eyes stopped him cold.

"You're hurt," she said with iron in her voice. "That ankle is swollen and you have a nasty crack on the head. So you're going to take it easy today and let me take care of you."

"Urd..."

"Or," she said with a hint of gleeful menace. "I can keep my promise and set you on fire."

He silently assessed whether or not she was joking and quickly laid back down.

"Can I have some soup?" he asked.

"Of course you can," she said, patting his hand like a dutiful nurse. She rose to her feet and started for the door. It was only then that he noticed something rather important.

"Urd?" he called. She stopped and turned to him, waiting for him to continue. "Um... just a little thing, really," he went on. "But... well... last night when I carried you to the bathroom... I was wearing pants and a t-shirt... and now I'm in pajamas..."

She smiled and gave him a wink. "I told you, Keiichi," she said before disappearing down the hall.

"Fair's fair."


	15. Bed of Roses

Disclaimer: I don't own AMG or FMP.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 15**

**Bed of Roses**

"Aunt Urd, can we stop at the park?"

The request broke an awkward silence that had threatened to break into the three-minute mark, and Urd was almost thankful for the interruption. Up until now, the little girl had been skipping ahead of them, giving her and Belldandy some semblance of privacy. She saw Sachiko point to the playground nearby and nodded.

"Sure, Kiddo. You go on ahead, and I'll call your mom."

Sachiko ran toward the jungle gym while Urd and Belldandy continued toward the swings. The older Norn pulled out her cell phone and dialed quickly before Belldandy could make any remarks on what she had just told her.

"Hey, it's me," she said into the phone. "Just wanted to let you know we're stopping at the park. How are you doing?" There was a pause. "In bed resting, huh?" she asked. "That's funny, that sounds like the washing machine in the background."

Belldandy listened with almost no interest whatsoever.

"Megumi, get in bed," Urd all but growled. "I mean it. Don't make me call Toshio at work." A pause. "Call it whatever you want, just get into bed... Okay. Talk to you later. Bye."

She snapped the phone shut. "Now, then, where were we?"

"You were gloating," Belldandy whispered.

Urd looked at her as if punched in the stomach. "Sis..."

"Is this what it's going to be like?" Belldandy asked softly. "Am I to be treated to a detailed accounting of every occasion you've bared your breasts to him?"

The older sister said nothing, her eyes wide.

"Was there any point to telling me about that _except_ to highlight the fact that he knows you better than he ever knew me?" Belldandy asked icily.

"There _was_ a point," Urd all but growled. "It was the turning point. After that weekend, Keiichi and I together didn't seem so... so... _implausible._" She looked at her sister, begging her with her eyes to understand. "It became less 'if' and more 'when.'"

She sat down on one of the swings and gently pushed off with her feet.

"But the real catalyst," she went on. "The thing that really got my blood boiling... was that crap Peorth tried to pull."

"Peorth?" Belldandy asked, sitting in the swing next to her sister's.

Urd nodded. "You know me," she went on. "When I hit someone with a bolt of lightning, it's just a gag. I never hurt Troubadour or Aoshima or Sayoko... not _really_. But Peorth..." She paused and shook her head. "I wanted to zap her so hard she'd glow in the dark."

"What did she do?" Belldandy asked, intrigued despite herself.

Urd's lips curled into a grimace. "She tried to 'help' you."

_Eight years ago..._

Urd hefted the white plastic bag as she stepped up to the front door. She knocked twice and didn't bother to wait for an answer, opting instead to let herself in. The goddess turned to shut the door as she called out.

"Hey, Megumi, it's me," she announced. She turned back and headed toward her friend's kitchen. She heard movement from down the hall and turned. "Hey..." She came up short and blinked. "... um... naked guy."

The man standing in the hallway wasn't completely naked. He _was_ wearing a pair of shiny red boxer shorts and an expression on his face not unlike that of a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck.

"Oh...oh, jeez..." he whimpered.

Urd gave him a once over. "Well..." she said. "Now it's a party."

The man started to stammer. "Um... I'm...I'm...I'm..."

Megumi poked her head through the bathroom door into the hallway, brushing her teeth. "Hey, Urd," she said, pulling the brush from her mouth.

"What's up, Megumi?" Urd replied casually. Her eyes found the boy again and realized she recognized him. "Toshio, right?" she asked. The boy cleared his throat and nodded nervously. "Thought so," Urd said. "Didn't recognize you there with no pants."

"Hi," he finally said.

Megumi stepped out of the bathroom wearing an NIT softball jersey and a pair of boy shorts. "Bathroom's free," she announced to Toshio. "I'm going to make some tea. You want some?"

"Uh, yeah," he said, ducking quickly into the bathroom.

Urd shared a grin with the coed. "I thought you didn't want a boyfriend who couldn't change a flat?"

Megumi started for the kitchen as the sound of the shower filled the hallway. "We ran into each other a few weeks ago and things just happened," she said with a shrug. "We're not serious or anything. Just having a good time."

"Uh huh," Urd replied as she sat down at Megumi's kitchen table. "I've heard that before."

Megumi put a kettle on the stove. "Yeah, well, I know your experience with Morisatos tells you that we latch onto one person and then not date anyone else... ever... but believe it or not a few of us _are_ capable of playing the field a little."

Urd's smile lost some of its shine. She sat back and took a breath. "Don't hold back, Megumi," she said sarcastically. "Tell me how you _really_ feel."

The girl shrugged as she pulled three cups out of the cupboard. She put them on the counter and paused before turning to her. "It's none of my business," she said.

"You're his sister," Urd told her. "I'm a sister. That's how I know it's _always_ your business."

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Megumi asked her pointedly.

Urd was expecting a tirade on how stupid Keiichi was and how he needed to get over Belldandy and move on, but this sudden attack on her was unexpected.

"Me?" Urd asked, unsure she had heard right.

"Yeah," Megumi affirmed. "You. I know you think no one knows, but it's pretty obvious..."

"Woah! Wait a sec!" Urd cried, holding her hands up. "What do you mean? What's 'obvious?'"

Megumi gave her an exasperated look. "Oh, _come on_!" she cried. "I know you don't spend as much time on campus as Belldandy did, but it's still obvious! Two years, the two of you are living together. Neither of you date, and you spend all your time together. For God's sake, if you were a _guy_ people would _still_ be assuming you're together!"

"We are _not_ together," Urd said.

"Do you have any idea how frustrating this is for me?" Megumi complained. "I see the two of you and I just want to scream, 'HAVE SEX, DAMMIT!'"

Urd stared at her, her mouth agape. "Wow..." She cleared her throat and recovered. "Look, Megumi, I understand you want to look out for your older brother, but he and I... I mean... We're not a couple, all right?"

"Oh yeah?" Megumi asked. She folded her arms over her chest. "What are the two of you doing today?"

The goddess shrugged. "Keiichi is teaching me to drive his motorcycle."

"The Beemer?!" Megumi asked incredulously. "You see? Now I _know_ something's up between you two! Normally a guy doesn't let a woman ride his motorcycle unless she's also riding _him_!" She sighed. "Look, Urd, I'm guessing you and Belldandy have some kind of rule where you don't date the ex of the other sister, but... I mean you're good together."

Urd looked down at the table. "Megumi... I consider Keiichi to be family," she said quietly. "Maybe in another time or place, but now... with Belldandy and..." She gave up and rose to her feet. "Look, I just came to drop off these vegetables from our garden and make sure you were coming to Keiichi's performance tomorrow. It's his first solo act."

"Yeah, I'll be there," Megumi told her despondently.

"Good," Urd told her, placing the bag of vegetables on the table. "I better get going."

"Urd," Megumi stopped her. "You know... He'd be good for you too."

The goddess smiled. "Yeah... maybe... but he's not mine."

888

Urd felt the machine rumble to life beneath her and jumped a little in the seat.

"Whoo!" she squeaked with a smile. "I could get to like this."

Sitting on the Beemer behind her, Keiichi reached around and placed his hands on the handlebars, tapping each switch in turn.

"Brake, clutch, accelerator," he told her. "Now put your hands here." She complied and he continued on. "Now put your left foot on the lever. Okay... clutch and push down on the lever... Now release the clutch and give it some gas."

Urd actually laughed out loud when the Beemer moved a whopping three feet forward. She hit the brake, and the bike came to a stop.

Keiichi grinned. "Okay, let's try it again. Ready?"

The goddess released the brake and put on some gas, and the Beemer rolled forward. She turned left, still inside the temple's walls and drove slowly around the residence. When they finally finished the circle and stopped in front of the shed where they started, Urd was laughing gleefully.

"Okay! That's kind of fun!" she cried.

"Yeah, I guess it is," he admitted with a smile, happy to see her take so much happiness in a quick ride around the house. "I'm kind of surprised you've never driven before. You've been here for five years."

"Just once," she said with a shrug as she turned the engine off. "Actually, the only bike I've ever really ridden was _you._"

Keiichi laughed... a little nervously, actually, and Urd, remembering her conversation with Megumi, cleared her throat.

"But you were just a scooter," she elaborated quickly. She adjusted herself in the Beemer's seat and gripped the handlebars. "Not something like this..."

"Yeah," Keiichi remarked with a blush. Before he could continue, a flash of light from the windows of the kitchen caught their attention.

Urd hopped off the bike and gestured for Keiichi to stay where he was. She stalked toward the house and summoned a bolt of lightning to her hand.

"Stay there," she ordered, a command Keiichi immediately disobeyed as he followed her up the front steps.

Urd stood to the side of the door and slowly reached out to take the doorknob. Before she could touch it, the door flew open and a familiar brunette stalked out onto the porch right past her.

"Where _is_ everybody?!" the woman complained.

Keiichi breathed a sigh of relief. "Peorth!"

Peorth saw him, and her face lit up. "Keiichi! Bonjour!"

Urd tapped her shoulder from behind, and the first-class goddess spun around.

"Hey, Peorth," Urd greeted. "Another vacation?"

Peorth ignored the question for the moment and walked down the steps to take Keiichi's hands. "I'm so sorry about Belldandy," she said. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay," Keiichi told her quietly. "Finally," he added. "Thanks to Urd."

The brunette looked to Urd, who only rolled her eyes a little.

"So what _does_ bring you here, Peorth?" Keiichi asked.

She turned back to him. "I wanted to give you an update on Belldandy."

"An update?" Keiichi asked, suddenly eager. "Has something happened?"

"Non," Peorth told him sadly, suddenly wondering if she had done the wrong thing by coming. "Well... Nothing good, anyway. It's not good news, Keiichi."

She watched him deflate before her eyes. "Oh?" he whispered.

The expression filled her with guilt. "It's... It's Hild," she said. "She's asking for too much in the negotiations. She's demanded ten war criminals sealed after the War Against God be released in exchange for her." She shook her head helplessly. "The Almighty can't even _begin_ to entertain that kind of demand. I can't even believe she would ask for that much."

"I can," Urd growled. "She asked for that because she _knew_ the Almighty would say no. She _has_ to negotiate. It's the rule. But she doesn't have to be reasonable about it."

"Spiteful connasse!" Peorth spat. "How can anyone... I mean... I just..."

"Yeah, we've been through all this," Urd told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Come on. We'll get you a beer." She led the goddess up the stairs and guided her into the house. At the last minute, she stopped and turned back to Keiichi, who hadn't moved an inch from where he was standing.

"Hey," she called gently. "You okay?"

He looked up at her and offered a weak smile. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I'm good."

She walked down the steps and reached out, giving him a gentle hug. "It's nothing we didn't already know," she whispered.

"Yeah," he agreed quietly. "I know. It's just..."

She waited for him to finish. Finally, she gently rested her hand on his shoulder... then gave him a slap across the face.

He blinked at her in shock. "What the heck was that for?!" he demanded.

"Because it's nothing new," she told him firmly. "But if you start sulking and getting depressed now, you're going to take it into that airplane with you tomorrow." She grabbed his ears and held his head firmly so he would have to look into her eyes. "Now let it go. I know it's hard, but let it go."

The mortal nodded and let out a sad chuckle. "Yeah, you're right."

"Come on," she said, starting up the steps. "I'll buy you a drink."

888

Urd put the beer can on the table in front of him and took the seat to his left, opposite Peorth. Keiichi pushed the beer aside and turned to speak to their new arrival.

"I still can't believe this happened," Peorth said, shaking her head. "It seems so... unnecessarily cruel..."

Keiichi blinked. He understood the goddess and Belldandy were friends, but to still be this emotional about it after two years.... He suddenly felt guilty about not feeling worse himself.

"I can't imagine what you must be going through," Peorth told him.

"Yeah," he allowed. "The first year was pretty bad, but I'm doing a lot better now."

She turned to Urd. "When I heard you had taken on Belldandy's wish... I have to admit I was rather surprised. May I ask why you did it?"

Urd shrugged. "It was the best way to solve the problem," she said. "Keiichi needed a goddess he could stand, and I... well... I guess I needed something to do."

Keiichi sighed. "Yeah, turns out I'm an awesome hobby..."

"Well I sure as hell wasn't going to try to learn the piano..."

He smirked, and his eyes found the clock hanging on the wall. "Ah, jeez," he said, rising to his feet. "I gotta go. Last rehearsal is today."

"Rehearsal?" Peorth asked.

Urd answered for him. "Keiichi is doing his first performance as the Shinden demo pilot tomorrow." The pride was evident in her voice.

"Ah bon?" Peorth asked, not understanding half what was said.

"Yeah, and I got one more flight before tomorrow," he said, grabbing his helmet and starting for the door.

"Anything particular for dinner?" Urd called to him.

"Whatever!" he replied.

The door closed behind him, and the two goddesses were silent for a moment.

"He's doing... better than I expected," Peorth confessed.

Urd shrugged. "You should have been here during that first year. It was pretty bad." She paused, realizing the same thing Keiichi had but suspecting the answer. "How long ago was it up there?" she asked.

"Six weeks," Peorth told her.

"Time dilation's a bitch, huh?" Urd asked. "How are you doing?"

Peorth shrugged. "It's depressing. I mean... there are some goddesses where you just can't believe something like that can happen to them. Then it does. How did Hild get her?"

Urd leaned back and looked at the ceiling. "My sister is a little naive," she shared. "Hild left a note for her, signed Keiichi's name on it and the next thing we know..." She shrugged. "Hild is a big fan of simplicity."

"And that worked?" Peorth asked amazed. "On _Belldandy_?"

Urd took a slug from her beer and shrugged again. "Everyone slips up eventually."

Peorth visibly deflated. "I expected more, to be honest."

"Sometimes what is is a very simple thing," Urd told her. She offered the goddess a smile. "You look like you could use a break. Why don't you stay for awhile?"

The other goddess smiled. "Merci, I think I will."

"Come on," Urd said, rising to her feet. "You can stay in your old room."

Peorth let Urd lead her down the hall toward the guest room.

"So, what is this thing Keiichi is doing?" Peorth asked. "Is it something for the Auto Club?"

"No, he actually left the Auto Club," Urd told her. "He flies now."

"Flies?" Peorth asked. "Broom or vaccuum? Oooh! Is he on a team? What position does he play? Bludger? Seeker?"

"No, it's a machine," Urd explained. "Something he and Belldandy found. He does stunts in it at these big shows. He's really into it. His first show is tomorrow. You should come."

Peorth smiled. "I think I shall."

888

"So what do you think, Jiroo?" Keiichi asked as he ran his hand along the Shinden's fuselage. "Is she ready?"

"Everything checks out," the crew chief told him. "The Z's tuned her up last week, so she's running smooth."

"Oi! Jinx!"

The two men turned and found a woman climbing out of a familiar jeep. Keiichi's smile broadened immediately.

"Hotaru!"

"G'day!" she called as she approached them. She gave him a hug and Jiroo a slap on the back in greeting. "Didn't think I'd just rush off 'an not say goodbye, didja?"

"Seemed your style," Jiroo quipped.

"Get fucked, mate," she laughed.

"You gonna stay for tomorrow's show?" Keiichi asked.

She shook her head sadly. "Can't. My flight leaves tonight, but I wanted to come down an' say goodbye. C'mon. Let's talk."

Keiichi followed the woman out of the hangar and to a small wooden patio away from all the fuel areas where the students were allowed to smoke.

"You feel good about tomorrow?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said with a nod. He grinned. "It's going to be fun."

"Too right," she agreed. She paused as if searching for something to say. "It's weird," she said. "Graduating, I mean. Moving on and all that. I feel like I'm supposed to leave something behind."

He shrugged. "You're leaving school behind. Homework. That's something to be happy about."

"Yeah, I suppose," she said. "But I'm also leaving the club behind, ya know?" Her face scrunched up as if she just stepped in something disgusting. "I like to think I'm leaving it better than when I found it."

"Everyone feels that way about something they cared about," Keiichi told her.

She smiled at him. "I'm glad I'm leaving the club with you, Keiichi," she said. "Even if it is only for a year. Remember the day we met?"

"You punched me in the face," he told her deadpan.

"Yeah..." she said almost sheepishly. "I did at that." She cleared her throat. "Even so, you've turned into a hell of a pilot." She reached into the cargo pocket of her pants. "I have something for you."

"What is it?" he asked. "A bill?"

"Did I ever tell you why they call me 'Razor,' Keiichi?" she asked as she handled a small wooden rectangular block of wood she had produced from her pocket.

"I assumed because it was scary-sounding," he admitted.

She flicked her wrist and a scratched and beaten straight razor flipped out from the block. A large chip had broken from the front end, making it look even more ragged and frightening.

"When I was ten years old," she explained, "My grandfather took me on a little flight into the outback. Nothing special, just a quick in and out. Halfway through the flight, he stroked out, and we went down into the bush. SAR didn't find me for three days."

"Jeez," he breathed.

"The only thing I had to work with was my grandpa's shaving kit... and his razor," she told him. "When they found me, they said it was a miracle, but you know what I think it was?" She waited for Keiichi to shake his head before continuing. "I made a decision," she told him. "That first night in the bush, when all I could hear was the dingos and Lord knows what else, that I was going to get out of there. Once I made a decision to act, everything else was simple. Everything."

She folded the razor and reached out, putting it in his hand.

"I want you to have it," she said. "I don't need it anymore. But I think you do."

"Me?" he asked.

"There's decisions you gotta make, Keiichi," she said. "And you suck at making them, and life doesn't wait around for you to make up your mind. If you don't decide right then and there... then the fucking dingos eat you."

He hefted the small instrument for a moment and looked up at her. "Thanks, Razor," he said.

"Goodbye, Keiichi," she said. "I'll see you around the windsock." She started for her jeep and turned back to him. "And don't crash my fucking airplane!" she called.

He grinned. "Not yours anymore!" he replied. "You quit! She's mine now!"

She gave him the finger and hopped into the jeep. Giving him one last wave and a smile, she was gone.

888

She found him where she knew she would, sitting on the temple roof, looking at the stars shining overhead. Hopping up to the top of the shrine with the grace of a cat, Urd took a seat next to him and offered him the bottle of sake she had brought with her.

"Tough day?" she asked.

He took one swig and shrugged. "Not really," he replied. "And I think that's what's bothering me."

"Oh no!" she cried in mock horror. "You had a good day!?" She bit her knuckles in fear. "How could you have let this happen?! What next?! A good week?! A so-so month?!" She put the back of her hand to her forehead in despair. "Oh, cruel and wonderful fate! The dawn shall never come!"

He laughed. "Knock it off!" he cried. "I'm serious!" He took a breath. "Things are starting to change, and I think the things that shouldn't change are... well... things that are changing the most."

"Like what?" she asked.

"Well... like Peorth," he said, trying to explain. "I mean... she's so upset about Belldandy, and I'm... Well... I mean I'm not over it, but it's like I don't... I mean... Look, let's just say I suck and leave it at that."

She grinned at him. "Keiichi, you can relax. You're normal. The reason Peorth is still emotional about it is because of the time dilation between here and Heaven. It was two years ago _for us_. It's only been six weeks for her. Remember what you were like six weeks in?"

"I was a mess," he admitted.

"Yeah, you were," Urd agreed. "Whatever wounds she's feeling are still open. Yours have scabbed over. It doesn't mean you're over it or over _her_. If you pick at it enough, all that pain and everything else you feel will come back."

"Do you think I will?" he asked her softly.

"Will what?"

"Get over her," he elaborated. He turned his head and looked at her. "It sucks, Urd," he hissed, angry at himself for the thought. "I don't _want_ to heal like that. I don't want to 'get over' her. But it's like every day I have to think a little harder to remember the details of what she looks like or how her voice sounds." He swallowed and shook his head. "It's like I'm losing her a piece at a time."

Urd sighed. "Keiichi, I'm not going to lie to you. This would have been so much easier for you if Hild had just killed her. You could mourn, let her go and still remember her the way you wanted to. This..." She shook her head. "Hild's beating you up with your own hope."

"Should I let her go?" he asked softly.

The goddess froze. "Are you asking my permission?"

"It's been two years," he said. "I don't even know _how_ I'm supposed to feel anymore. Hotaru said I have to make a decision or get eaten by dingos." He saw Urd's questioning look. "Long story," he explained. "But in a way she's right. If I make a decision, if I say 'this is the way it's going to be,' one way or the other, I could live with that. I feel like I'm stuck in between."

Urd took the bottle from him and took a long drink. "I'm a selfish person, Keiichi," she told him.

"No, you're not," Keiichi began.

"No, I am," she said. "And so as a selfish person, I have some experience with what I'm about to say." She turned and looked him in the eye. "At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, 'are the decisions I make making me happy?' If the answer is yes, then you've got it all figured out. It's your life. But if the answer is no, then you owe it to _yourself_ to make decisions that _do_."

"Urd..."

"It's your life, Keiichi," she said. "If you want to wait, then wait. If you don't, then don't. You tormented yourself with this for two years. You can stop now."

"Could I really?" he asked. "Could I really just turn my back on her?"

"I don't know," she said truthfully. "I'm not Keiichi Morisato. But I do know you don't have to decide right now." She smiled at him. "There are no dingos here, Keiichi. You can think about things, make a decision when you're ready. But you're right, you can't stay stuck in between forever."

Keiichi stood up and looked up at the stars. "Not yet," he told her. He smiled. "I'm not ready yet." He nodded to himself. "Yeah... Not yet."

888

"NOW APPROACHING FROM YOUR RIGHT, PLEASE GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO NEKOMI'S OWN TESSA'S TOY!"

Urd, Peorth and Megumi, along with a hundred thousand others, turned their head to watch the Shinden make its first pass along the length of the Nekomi Airport runway.

Turning back to the crowd, microphone in hand, Cake continued her narration, only glancing at the cue card in her hand. "ORIGINALLY BUILT DURING WORLD WAR TWO TO COMBAT THE AMERICAN B-29, THIS KYUSHU J7W HAS BEEN COMPLETELY RESTORED AND UPGRADED BY THE NEKOMI TECH AERONAUTICS CLUB." She paused as Keiichi zipped past the narration stand and pulled up into a loop. "DUBBED TESSA'S TOY IN HONOR OF OUR BENEFACTOR, WHISPERS INTIMATE APPAREL CEO TELETHA TESSATOROSSA, THE SHINDEN NOW SERVES AS A STUNT AIRCRAFT AND SEARCH AND RESCUE PLANE FOR THE CIVIL AUXILIARY."

Megumi put her hand over her eyes to block out the sun as she watched her brother fly. "Damn," she breathed as he swooped low over the runway and brought the Shinden into a vertical climb, rolling as he went higher and higher until the aircraft came to a stop, floating in mid-air.

Suddenly, the plane started to fall, spinning as it raced toward the earth. The crowd gave a collective gasp as a crash seemed to become a foregone conclusion, but at the last moment, the plane righted itself and swooped away, giving a victory roll as it raced to the crowd's left.

Urd smiled as she watched the show. She had seen it before, of course. Hotaru had performed the same routine to the same narration. But somehow, watching Keiichi doing it just made it seem better. It was as if he added some element to it that Hotaru's performance lacked.

Keiichi cut across the crowd again, performing a four-point roll, snapping the plane at ninety-degree angles until it was right-side-up again.

"So this is what he's been doing," Peorth noted.

Urd nodded. "It's great, isn't it?" she asked.

Megumi shook her head. "I don't see how you can be so calm," she said. "Watching him do this scares me."

The Norn smiled and closed her eyes. "Because he loves it," she answered.

Peorth turned her eyes to the other goddess, studying her expression as Urd continued.

"Look at them," she said quietly. "It's like they're dancing."

"Dancing?" Megumi asked, flinching as smoke suddenly appeared from the Shinden's wingtips and Keiichi rolled the aircraft quickly to the right and beginning another loop.

Urd's smile was angelic, both calm and certain while utterly beautiful. "Yeah," she said quietly. "He leads, and she follows. She won't let him fall. Because he loves what he's doing and so does she."

"Maybe he'll teach you to fly her," Megumi suggested with a grin. "But you know, usually a man doesn't let a woman fly his airplane unless..."

Peorth watched the other goddess open her eyes again. "You sound like her," she noted.

Urd gave her a questioning look. "Who?"

"Belldandy," Peorth told her. She turned back to the show. "_A lot_ like her."

Urd tried to divine the meaning behind Peorth's words as the Shinden made its final pass.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR KEIICHI MORISATO AND TESSA'S TOY!"

888

Peorth luxuriated pensively in the tub, her mind aswirl with the things she'd seen and heard today. She stretched a perfect leg out of the tub and sighed before lowering it into the water again and looking up at the ceiling.

"So," she began quietly. "Did you see what I saw?"

Floating above her, Gorgeous Rose clasped her hands together and smiled happily before spinning around twice.

"Oui," Peorth agreed. "It _is_ cute... But at the same time... damaging."

Gorgeous Rose adopted a panicked expression. She floated above her mistress and sniffled.

Peorth sighed. "Don't be dramatic," she admonished. "It's only cute until someone gets hurt." She sighed. "And someone _will_ get hurt... actually... all three of them would get hurt. And in so many ways. Betrayal... jealousy... guilt..."

The angel looked a question to her mistress, who took a breath before replying.

"It can't end like this," she told her angel. "Something must be done before it's too late."

Gorgeous Rose blinked at her.

Peorth closed her eyes. "It looks like I'm going to have to step in and stop this."

888

"Urd!"

The two goddesses looked up from the swings to find a well-dressed young woman smiling brightly as she strolled toward them. In her wake walked a young man with a scarred face and unkempt hair in a suit whose eyes darted to and fro as if searching for ninjas that could be hiding behind any teeter-totter.

Urd smiled as she rose to her feet. "Teletha! What are you doing out here?"

The CEO smiled brightly. "Sagara san and I are having a picnic," she declared.

The young man looked distinctly uncomfortable, but not because of what the woman said. "Tessatarossa san," he began. "This area is very open. You're making yourself vulnerable to a sniper's bullet every moment you remain here."

"You made him go, didn't you?" Urd asked her, eyes narrowed.

Teletha giggled and winked. "Well, he _is_ my bodyguard after all. He kind of _has to_."

Belldandy blinked. "I thought you said Sagara san worked for Chidori's Secret?" she noted.

"Hadn't gotten to that yet," Urd explained quickly. "Whispers bought out Chidori's Secret in a hostile takeover about four years back."

"I see," Belldandy said.

Urd turned back to Teletha. "This is my sister, Belldandy," she said in introduction. "Belldandy, this is Teletha Tessatarossa, my boss."

"Charmed," the CEO told Belldandy with a bow before turning to the other goddess. Teletha put her hand on Urd's arm. "I'm glad I ran into you," she said. "I needed to ask you something. We're starting a new line of intimate apparel for pr..."

"PURPLE MONKEY DISHWASHER!" Urd suddenly shouted.

The three of them looked at her in complete shock.

"I mean..." Urd demured. "Perhaps we should talk about this later."

Sagara leaned in to whisper in Teletha's ear, his hand lingering under his jacket on what could only have been a pistol. "It appears your friend has become mentally unstable. Perhaps I should restrain her."

"Don't be silly, Sagara san," she replied. "This kind of behavior is typical for a woman in Urd's con...."

"CONSTIPATION!" Urd finished with a cry. "Yes... I mean..." She wilted and muttered to herself. "Jeez, that's the best I could come up with. I'm really off my game..."

Belldandy could only blink at her sister's behavior. "Neesan... are you all right?"

"I'm fine!" Urd countered. "Perfectly fine."

"You know," Teletha began, the end of her braid at her lips as she sized up Belldandy. "I'm going to be losing Urd in a couple of months. Are you by chance looking for work?"

The younger Norn turned to Urd. "You're quitting? I thought you liked modeling?"

"It's..."

"Oh, it's only temporary!" Teletha assured her. "She's welcome to come back after the..."

"YANKEES WIN THE WORLD SERIES!" Urd finished. She was sweating profusely now. "Big...BIG... Yankees fan," she added.

"Aunt Urd?"

Urd knelt down next to Sachiko and hugged her. "Oh! Look, everyone! It's Sachiko chan!" she said, grateful for the distraction. "Let's hear what she has to say! What is it, Honey?"

Sachiko smiled. "Will you still take me to the park after you have your baby?"

The Norn's eyes went wide. She heard a thump nearby as Belldandy's unconscious form hit the ground.

She sighed. "Hai, Sachiko chan," she said, giving the girl a hug. "I'll still take you to the park after the baby comes."

_To be continued..._

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8

Keiichi Morisato wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his left hand while he continued to spray the small garden with the hose in his right. It was another scorcher out today, and if they wanted any vegetables worth eating out of their little patch of tomatoes and green beans, they found they had to water it three times a day.

"Keiichi san," Belldandy called from his left with a wave. She smiled brightly and pointed toward the watermelon patch at her feet. "Over here! These poor watermelons are thirsty!"

The college student smiled as a sudden, evil thought popped into his head. Turning the hose, he sprayed the watermelons for a moment before suddenly aiming the water at the goddess nearby.

He expected her to shriek and try to duck out of the line of fire, but instead the Norn laughed a cry and turned, allowing the water to douse her entire body.

Keiichi turned red as his immortal girlfriend's white shirt started to cling to her body. She gave no notice and smiled at him. He swallowed as his eyes followed her curves, totally unaware that she was whispering something. By the time he snapped awake again...

"....aqua create!"

"Huh?!" He cried out loud as a ball of water fell on him from above, summoned by Belldandy's magic.

She giggled again at him.

"Oh, totally not fair!" he cried, giving her a blast with the hose again. This time she did shriek and ran quickly for the house as he chased her, stopping only when the hose reached its end.

By then, the Norn had reached the house. Poking her head from the safety of the doorframe, she smiled. "Keiichi san, I'm going to change and start lunch. Would you like some lemonade?"

He twisted the bottom of his shirt, wringing the water out before answering her. "Sounds great," he replied. The boy quickly arced the water at her, trying to catch her by surprise.

Belldandy gave an "Eeep!" and ducked back into the house.

Keiichi chuckled. "Next time, Gadget," he whispered. "Next time."

Turning, he went back to watering the garden. It would only take a few minutes to finish then he'd go inside and have lunch with the goddesses. Urd was locked in her room, preparing for some kind of ritual she refused to talk about, and Skuld was experimenting with Banpei in her lab. The young goddess was attempting to give the robot a speech program that would allow him to talk. So far, she had been less than successful. Her first attempt had come the closest, but with the parts she had used having been made in Hong Kong, the result was that the robot would only speak Chinese. It had gone downhill from there.

"Excuse me."

Keiichi blinked and turned, simultaneously cutting the hose off. A man perhaps a foot taller than him stood behind him. He wore a brown leather jacket and khaki slacks that looked like they just came from the Old Navy downtown. Dusty brown hair hung over his right eye while the green left eye gave Keiichi a once over.

"Hi," Keiichi said, becoming slightly more guarded. The man was obviously a foreigner, and the only people who looked like foreigners who came around here were gods or goddesses... or demons.

Keiichi had learned over the past three years that there were certain truths he had to live with when it came to Belldandy, Urd and Skuld. First, anytime a new goddess came to town, that goddess almost certainly had something personal against one of the Norns. Second, whenever a god came around, it was almost the exact opposite, which had its own array of disadvantages.

"Hi," the stranger said again. "I'm looking for Belldandy. I heard she lives here."

_Of course,_ Keiichi thought with a silent sigh. He took bets in his head. Three to one said the guy... god, he was assuming by now... was an old friend harboring a crush on Belldandy and had finally worked up the courage to sweep her off her feet. At 100 to one was a magical unicorn-riding space prince who had been betrothed to Belldandy since birth and had finally come to make it official. Place your bets!

"Yeah," Keiichi said. "She's here." He held his hand out. "Keiichi."

The god took his hand and shook it with a smile. "Loki. It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," the mortal said. "Come on inside." He started for the door, resigned to let it play out the way it always did. He'd take the god inside. He'd meet Belldandy, who would be shocked at the sight of him. The god would proclaim his love and insist Belldandy come away with him. Belldandy would gently refuse. The god would get angry and swear revenge on Keiichi... because somehow it was always _his_ fault... cackle a little and disappear, only to reappear at regular intervals and make Keiichi's life hell by systematically trying to destroy his standing in Belldandy's eyes... or by turning him into garden gnome.

Either way, Keiichi had learned there was no point trying to avoid it. His week was going to suck. Might as well get it over with.

"Belldandy?" he called as they entered. "You have a visitor!"

"A visitor?" he heard her call back from the kitchen. She appeared in the doorway with a bright smile on her face, wiping her hands with a dish rag. "I love visitors!"

Keiichi sighed. Of course she did. They never turned _her_ into a scooter.

"Who is it?" she asked.

He stepped aside so she could see the newcomer. Just as the script said, Belldandy went rigid, a shocked look on her face.

Loki stepped forward. "Belldandy," he said with a smile. "It's been a long time."

_Old boyfriend!_ Keiichi's mind declared. _House pays three to one!_

He watched Loki step closer to the Norn. Loki bit his lip and smiled again. "You look good," he said.

She slapped him.

The crack from her palm striking his face echoed through the hallway like a gunshot.

Keiichi felt like she had struck him instead of Loki. He actually felt his face redden. He blinked, thinking he must have dreamed it, but no, Loki was standing there, a red welt spreading across his left cheek.

Belldandy stared at him, her eyes alight with anger.

"Get out!" she hissed.

Loki didn't answer right away. "Bellda..."

"You're not welcome here!" the Norn told him.

"Look, I know..."

"Keiichi," she said, ignoring the god. "Lunch will be ready in a minute. Would you please show this person out?"

Keiichi was dumbfounded into silence. Not welcome? This was the same goddess who made tea for Hild whenever the CEO of Hell dropped by!

"Please, Keiichi san?" she begged, obviously rearing back some heavy emotions.

"Um... yeah," he said stupidly. "Um... Loki..."

The god nodded and shrugged. "Fine," he said. Turning, he walked back the way he came and out the door.

Before Keiichi could turn and ask Belldandy what had happened, the Norn was already back in the kitchen, stirring a pot of soup that boiled merrily on the stovetop. He followed here, watching her as she stirred soup for several minutes as if nothing had happened. Finally, unable to hold back anymore, he opened his mouth to speak.

"I don't want to talk about it, Keiichi san," she said suddenly, cutting him off before he could ask. "Please."

"Are you okay?"

The spoon stirring the soup froze as she stared down at the broth, considering his question very carefully. "I'm well," she said finally.

He didn't know whether or not to push. And push where? Who was this god? An old boyfriend who cheated on her, maybe?

_Loki... Loki was a trickster god..._ he thought. He remembered some Norse mythology he had read when it dawned on him who his girlfriend and her sisters were. It seemed prudent to do some reading, but had been disappointed to find practically nothing on them. Loki, however, he remembered as someone who was a constant annoyance to the other gods, almost a recurring villain.

_So what did he do to Belldandy?_ He wondered.

"Soup's ready!" she announced, turning to him with a smile. "Could you get me some bowls from the cabinet?"

"Um... yeah," he said, fetching the requested dishes.

"I'll start serving if you go get Urd and Skuld," she hinted.

He nodded, suddenly knowing where to get his answers.

888

Skuld had bounded toward the kitchen when Keiichi told her lunch was ready. As she dashed off, Keiichi knocked on Urd's door.

"Come in!"

Opening the door, he arched an eyebrow at the sight that met him. Urd was sitting crosslegged on the floor of her room, surrounded by manga, one of which lay open on her lap. A pair of black, bear-like ears sat atop her head like a beauty queen's tiara.

"Um... Urd?" he asked. "What are you doing?"

Her eyes never left the pages of the comic book. "I'm boning up on my Go Go Happy Panda canon," she said. "Pandanomi-Con is this week. I have to be ready."

"You're... um... going to a manga con?" he asked, his eyebrow twitching.

"Not just any manga con," she said, still staring at the book. "Pandanomi-Con! The creator is going to be there taking questions, and I'm going to zing him!"

"Wow," Keiichi said, deadpan. "That's just... awesome. Look, I need to talk to you."

"If it doesn't involve bamboo recipes or the habits of the carnivorous Tibetan Mountain Panda, I'm not interested," she answered.

"A god named Loki was just here," he said.

Urd's eyes stopped moving across the page. "Oh?" she asked, trying to sound casual.

"Yeah," he replied. "And Belldandy...." It still seemed so astonishing his brain couldn't put it into words. "She slapped him... I mean without a word."

The elder Norn lowered the manga and sighed. "I'm sure she did."

"She doesn't want to talk about it," he went on. "But I know something's up."

"You're right about that," she said.

He waited several seconds. "So... what is it?"

She finally looked up at him. "No offense, Keiichi, but if she doesn't want to talk to you about it, why should I?"

The boy bit his lip, knowing that Urd was right. "Because whatever it is hurts her," he said. "And I don't know what to say or do for her."

Urd said nothing.

"I mean..." He struggled to find words. "I've never seen her like that before. And the guy, I mean... he didn't protest or get angry or swear revenge or anything like that! He just... he just walked off." He shook his head. "I mean... I think she would rather just not bring it up again, but at the same time.... who does Belldandy _ever_ hate?"

The Norn sighed. "It has to do with our brother."

"Brother?" Keiichi asked, blinking in surprise. "I didn't know you had a brother."

"_I_ had a half-brother," Urd corrected. "Belldandy and Skuld had an older brother, Baldr. He, Belldandy and Loki were friends as children."

New worries of a protective older brother descending from Heaven to defend Belldandy's honor suddenly emerged in the boy's head. As if he didn't have enough immortal trouble.

"Their mother, Frigga, is a seer," Urd went on. "She sees the future. One day when they were teenagers, Frigga had a vision about Baldr's death."

Lights went on behind Keiichi's eyes. "I remember this story!" he exclaimed.

Urd blinked. "You do?"

"Yeah!" he said, sitting down across from Urd to explain. "It was in a book of Norse myths I read, but the book didn't say Frigga was your mother."

"Stepmother," Urd corrected. "And yeah, the guys who wrote those legends sometimes got their facts mixed up."

Keiichi ignored her and continued. "Frigga saw her son's death," he retold the account from memory. "So she went around and asked everything in the world to promise not to harm him, and everything promised except for a plant..."

"Mistletoe," Urd supplied sadly.

"Yeah," Keiichi continued. "Loki asked Frigga if she really managed to get a promise out of everything in the world, and she told him everything except mistletoe because it was too young to swear an oath."

Urd was silent.

"So Loki switched out some other god's arrow for one laced with mistletoe, and while Baldr was showing off his new invulnerability, the god shot him, and he died." He sat back and sighed. "So that's it, huh?" he asked. "Belldandy hates him because he killed her brother."

The Norn bit her lip, considering how much more to tell him. Finally, she came to a decision and readjusted her seat on the floor. "It.... goes a little further than that," she confessed.

He blinked. "Huh?"

"Um... yeah," she said quietly. "Remember how I said the guys who write the legends get some of the facts wrong?"

"Yeah."

She paused and cleared her throat. "Keiichi.... Frigga didn't tell Loki Baldr's weakness..."

He looked at her in confusion. She raised her eyes to meet his and finished.

"Belldandy did."

_Ah! My Goddess!_

_Guilt_

_There comes a time when you can't hide from the things you've done anymore._

_Coming this winter_


	16. Crystal Visions

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine and neither is FMP.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 16**

**Crystal Visions**

At first, she thought she had dreamed it again.

She woke up on a futon, just as she did before, but this time she was still wearing her dress, and it wasn't her futon.

And everything had happened just the way she remembered it.

She swallowed dryly, the shock and despair of her situation making every act painful as she stared up at the ceiling.

"Hey," she heard a soft voice call in greeting. "You okay?"

Belldandy turned her head to the left and saw a familiar face looking worriedly back at her. Megumi Morisato had undergone a great many changes since becoming Megumi Mizuno, the most obvious one at the moment being the belly she carried after eight months of pregnancy.

"Megumi san," the goddess whispered. She looked around the room again, realizing she wasn't in the temple. "I'm in your home."

"That's right," the woman whispered as she gently sat on the futon next to her. "It's okay. Sagara san carried you here. It's okay now."

"It's not okay," Belldandy whispered, once again staring at the ceiling. "How can it be?"

Megumi looked at her sympathetically.

"Where's my sister?" Belldandy asked woodenly.

"She's in the living room," Megumi replied. "Playing with Sachiko. She said... you might not want to see her right now."

The goddess said nothing.

"It wasn't that she wasn't going to tell you," Megumi explained, coming to her sister-in-law's defense. "She... I think she was just waiting for the right time."

Belldandy remained silent.

"They're very happy," Megumi added.

"And I guess they should be," Belldandy whispered. "Megumi san... I... I'm trying to feel happy for her. I _want_ to. I mean... my big sister is going to have a baby with a wonderful, loving man... a man who loves her... who will care for her..." She shook her head slowly. "But as much as I try, all I can feel is... this... jealous... _anger_." She shut her eyes in pain.

Megumi watched her with pity.

"I keep thinking... 'that's _my_ life! It's _my_ baby!'" Belldandy explained. "I was here first... I _saw him_ first... and..." She broke off and shook her head again.

The mortal woman took her hand and squeezed it. "Urd told me she was telling you about the last ten years," she said. "I can't imagine what it's like to hear about this stuff."

"And I still don't know all of it," Belldandy told her.

"Would you like me to get Urd?" Megumi asked.

"No," Belldandy replied, almost begging. "Please. Not yet. Could... Could you tell me some?"

Megumi smiled. "Sure. Sure, I can do that. Where did she leave off?"

"Peorth," Belldandy said simply.

"Ah," Megumi replied with a nod. She smiled as she made herself more comfortable. "You know, you and Urd have a lot in common, I think. Something Peorth found out was that your jealous streak must come from your father's side, because, as it turns out, Urd can be pretty territorial..."

_Eight years ago..._

Urd refused to wake up early. There was a proper time and place to reveal her beauty and grace to the world and before seven a.m. wasn't it. So by the time she did step out onto the back steps, it was past eight-thirty, and the sun was already quite warm.

She yawned loudly and stretched upward so that her shirt rose above her midriff. Taking a breath, she took the final steps and stopped short, blinking at the sight that met her.

Peorth was sitting astride the Beemer, Keiichi standing next to her, showing her the various dials and controls. It looked like the rose goddess had decided to "go native," and wore a simple red dress remarkably similar in cut to the one Belldandy liked to wear.

She wasn't sure why, but the faintest tinging of an alarm bell went off in the back of her mind. The goddess strode toward the two.

Keiichi saw her first and smiled. "Good morning," he greeted her.

"Hey," she replied. "What's up?"

"Keiichi is teaching me to drive," Peorth told her with a smile.

"Your broom busted or something?" Urd asked her.

Peorth took the biting question in stride. She shrugged. "I thought I'd stay for awhile and learn about being a mortal. I didn't really take the time to do that last time I was here. Knowing more about them will help me have a better understanding about their desires when I grant their wishes." She turned her attention back to the bike, gripping the handlebars. "And most mortals drive, oui?"

"Well, it's not a requirement," Keiichi told her. "But it comes in handy."

"Ah bon?" Peorth replied. "Even so, I appreciate you teaching me, Keiichi," she said to him softly. "Merci."

"Oh, it's no problem," he said.

"_A guy doesn't let a woman ride his motorcycle unless she's also riding him,"_ Megumi's teasing voice sang in Urd's head. Her hands curled into fists.

Peorth caught her glare and adopted a demure expression. "That's not a problem, is it?" she asked.

Keiichi looked at Urd curiously and blinked.

"No," Urd said, her voice dripping with sugared venom. "Why should it be?"

"Bon," Peorth said, turning her attention back to the bike.

Urd turned on her heel and started marching back toward the house. She turned as someone touched her shoulder from behind.

Keiichi's concerned expression met her. "You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said firmly.

"You don't look fine," he pressed. "Something on your mind?"

"Just forget it," she said. "It's nothing."

She pulled away and reentered the house. Keiichi stared after her for a moment.

"Keiichi?"

He turned and found Peorth standing there, concern in her eyes. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he said, still sounding puzzled. "It's just... She's not usually like that. I mean, she's not a morning person, but..."

Peorth smiled gamely. "She's just not used to having to share your attention, maybe," she suggested.

He chuckled, the laugh turning into a yawn a few moments later.

The goddess cocked her head. "Am I boring you?" she asked with a smile.

"No," he replied. "I'm sorry. Post show party last night," he explained. "Should've gotten more sleep."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to drag you out here early."

"It's no problem. I need to work on a project for the club anyway." He started back to the Beemer. "Come on. We'll go around the temple a couple of times."

888

Keiichi sat down at his desk and yawned again. He really wasn't in the mood to work on this project. He gave a few minutes honest consideration to just taking a nap, but if this new routine was going to be ready in time for their show on Okinawa, it had to be finished and approved this week.

He picked up the pencil and started to work, making the necessary calculations.

Fuel consumption.

Air speed.

Weather.

Urd.

What bee got into Urd's bonnet? This question overtook the topic at hand and made him pause, tapping the end of the pencil against the desk. He wanted to go and confront her, demand she tell him what was bothering her. They'd known each other too long to start keeping secrets now. But she had a shoot this morning and had already left.

He rubbed his eyes and forced himself to concentrate on his task. The pencil started moving again.

It's just... he hadn't seen her like this before. Did she and Peorth have a fight? Already? Peorth had only been here less than two days.

Should he ask Peorth?

Again he rubbed his eyes, this time allowing them to remain closed.

Just for a minute.

888

"Okay, so what do I do?" Urd asked from her seat on the motorcycle in front of him. She rested her hands on the handlebars and waited for direction.

He leaned forward, looking over her left shoulder as he reached around to guide her hands to the throttle and clutch. "Okay, now hold here," he said. A light breeze blew a wisp of her hair across his nose, tickling it.

His hand came up to move the wisp away, and his eyes caught sight of the goddess's ear. He cleared his throat and continued. "So, you turn the throttle to put on the gas," he told her quietly, leaning in. "And the clutch when you change gears."

"What if I want to go faster?" she asked quietly.

"Well," he whispered, moving closer until his lips were a centimeter above the delicate skin behind her ear. "First, you have to..."

His lips brushed against her skin. He saw her eyes close in the Beemer's mirror and felt her hands squeeze his.

"That's pretty fast," she agreed. Before he could answer, she turned her head and caught his lips with hers. He caressed her face with his fingers and gently...

... woke up?

He blinked and shook his head. Checking the clock, he found he had been asleep for about twenty minutes.

And dreamed about...

"Oh, crap," he whispered.

888

Urd's expression was grim as she was struck by another flash of light. She wasn't sure why she was so angry.

Wait, yes she was.

Peorth was up to something. She was _always_ up to something.

She switched poses, her teeth clenched. The camera started clicking again.

But this time she was up to something with Keiichi. She could feel it in her bones. Last time, she tried to take Keiichi from Belldandy. Sure, she claimed she was doing it for them, but now with Belldandy gone, who knew what the rose goddess was really up to?

The clicking stopped, and she looked up. "What?" she demanded.

The photographer, Akio, shook his head and ran his fingers through his pink-dyed hair. "Urd, love, you are _dragging_ today," he complained. "I can't use this stuff. You need to step up the game, give me something real."

"What do you want?" she asked bitterly, trying to appear intimidating in a blue silk chemise. "A dance routine?"

"Now, now," Akio clucked. "Don't be a bitch. You're supposed to be sexy... not... mean."

She sighed. "I'm sorry," she said. "I promise, I'll try."

"Look, here's a trick," he said. "Imagine there's a hunky guy leaning on the far wall, and you have to seduce him without words. Or better! You got an ex you hate? Use him! That's what I do!"

As he said this, Teletha and a man and a woman in suits entered. The CEO was speaking to them as they observed the shoot.

Urd put them out of her mind. She took a breath and focused on the far wall, imagining Troubadour there. The thought of him standing back there watching her prompted a wicked grin to spread across her face.

Almighty, if that devious, self-centered bastard could see her now, he'd probably be openly drooling.

_God, what did I ever see in him, anyway?_ she asked herself. _I mean a lute player? Seriously? Did I really go through that kind of musician groupie stage?_

_Well, eat your heart out,_ she went on. _I hope you and your bird are really happy together._ She switched poses. _I don't need that kind of baggage anymore. I don't need it._

This wasn't working. Yeah, she didn't like Troubadour anymore, so why was she pretending to try to seduce him? Akio was such an idiot...

The Troubadour image started to fade and was replaced by another. She was thrown for a moment, but recovered and just went with it. She tossed her hair and leveled her gaze at the vision, as crystal clear as if he was really there, looking at her with a bemused smile.

The corner of her mouth quirked up, and she looked away bashfully for a moment before turning back to him and putting a finger to her lips.

The camera continued clicking. Her breath quickened, and she turned, looking at the apparition over her shoulder.

She was sweating five minutes later when Akio's voice broke in.

"Now, _that's_ what I'm talking about!" he cried.

"Huh?!" Urd replied, blinking her way out of the groove she was in. "What?"

"_That_, Urd, is how you make love to a camera!" Akio went on. "I mean, I'm not sure we can even use some of this stuff! It might be a little too risque for Japanese audiences."

Urd looked up at the wall and saw Keiichi's smile fade away, not consciously realizing until that very moment what she was doing.

"Oh, crap," she said.

888

"Hey," Megumi greeted as she opened the door. She looked at her brother for a moment and arched an eyebrow. "Oh, God, Kei chan, what did you do now?"

Keiichi rolled his eyes and stepped into his sister's apartment. "Why do you assume I only come here when I'm in trouble?"

"Because I know you," she said as she went to the fridge to get him a drink. She returned with a soda and handed it to him. "And I know this _must_ be about Urd."

"And what makes you think that?" he asked skeptically.

"Because if it were about anything else, you'd go to her," she said with a teasing smile. "So," she started again. "What did you do? Forget her birthday? Cut the cable TV in your house?"

"I... um... I had a weird dream," he said. "About Urd."

"Ruh-eal-lly?" she asked with a grin.

"Yeah," he admitted. He cleared his throat. "It's... weird..."

"So, spill," she said, settling in to hear the story.

He hesitated and looked from side to side anxiously.

"Was it a sex dream?" she asked.

"No!" he said quickly. "Well... not really. I kissed her," he explained. "And..." He paused again. "I don't know," he finished quietly. "I feel like..."

Megumi held a finger up. "Don't!" she ordered, prompting him to close his mouth. "Don't say you feel like you're betraying Belldandy! God, you take this stuff way too seriously sometimes."

"Well, how _should _I take it, then?" he demanded.

"Here's an idea," she shot back. "Take a nap and try to steal third!"

He stood up. "This was a mistake."

"No, it's not," she said, dialing down her ire. "Sit down, Kei chan. I'm sorry." He paused for a moment and sat back down. "Look, I think you're taking this too seriously. I really do. Kei chan, you live with a _lingerie model_ with the body of a Greek goddess..."

"Norse," he muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing," he said.

"Right..." she went on, thrown off for a moment. "... The body of a Greek goddess and you're freaked out when your subconscious decides to play footsie with her? Come on, Kei chan. Urd, Sif, Belldandy, Sayoko... Even Sora if you were really in a dry spell... Your mind just locked onto Urd because you two are so close."

"You think maybe I'm _too_ close?" he asked.

"Too close for what?" she asked with a laugh. "She's your closest friend. What are you going to do? Ship her off to Abu Dhabi? What are you afraid of, Kei chan?"

"I'm afraid I'm going to screw up," he told her. "That one day I'm going to get drunk, say the wrong thing and ruin things."

"Maybe you should ruin them," she told him seriously. "Maybe your subconscious knows something you don't want to face."

"Which is?"

"That it's time for you to get over Belldandy and realize that you have a chance for something _awesome_ if you're willing to take the shot," Megumi told him.

"With Urd?" he asked in disbelief.

"You say that as if you've never dreamed about kissing her," Megumi teased. "You two need each other," she said more seriously.

"You're telling me I should cheat on Belldandy... with her _sister_," he summed up.

"SHE LEFT YOU!" Megumi screamed at him.

"No, she didn't," he told her as calmly as possible, trying desperately to remember that Megumi didn't know the whole story. "It's complicated."

"It's only as complicated as you want to make it, Kei chan," she bit back. "Are you attracted to Urd?"

"Well, that's..."

"... A simple question," she finished. "Are you attracted to her?"

"Sure, I am," he fired back. "You said it yourself. Who wouldn't be?"

"Do you like spending time with her?"

"Yeah, and I liked spending time with Sif and Peorth and Hotaru..."

She shook her head. "Kei chan, I don't know why I'm even asking you these things. We both know the answers." She leaned forward and took his hands in her own. "But you're never going to be able to realize them until you let go of Belldandy... and you're not ready to do that."

He stood up. "No, I'm not," he told her. "Thanks, Megumi."

"Anytime, Kei chan," she said. "Tell Urd I said hi."

The elder Morisato started for the door. Opening it, he came face to face with the most determined-looking man he had ever seen. The boy had his fist up, ready to knock on the door.

"Who are you?" Keiichi asked.

"Who are you?!" the boy shot back.

The boy's tone put Keiichi on war-footing. "I'm Megumi's b..."

The other man's eyes went wide before he could finish, and his fist lashed out, striking Keiichi in the jaw. The pilot fell backward and hit the ground.

888

"Keiichi..."

He opened his eyes groggily, trying to focus on the woman standing over him. "Keiichi?" he heard her voice again. "It's time to get up."

The woman leaned over him, and her smile came into focus. "Hey," she said. "The kids are at your sister's today," she told him with a teasing smile. She rested her hands on his chest and brought her lips to his. "But if you don't wake up right now, we won't get to..."

He woke up and shook his head again, blinking at the sound of the voices he now heard.

"You _hit him_?!" Megumi shouted. "Why the hell did you _hit him_?!"

"I... I... I thought he was... you know..."

Finally remembering what happened, Keiichi grit his teeth and sat up. "Oh, _hell no_," he growled.

888

Belldandy, who was sitting up by now, put her hands over her mouth in horror. "Keiichi san... _fought_... your husband?"

"Well," Megumi said, "It's not like he was my husband at the time. He wasn't even _officially_ my boyfriend, he was the guy I was... well... sleeping around with..." She winced a little. "And... in Keiichi's defense... I hadn't mentioned that we were... a thing..."

"So," Belldandy summed up, "Keiichi san didn't know he was your boyfriend, he just thought he was some... strange man who forced his way into your apartment and hit him?"

Megumi winced. "Yeah..."

"Oh dear..." Belldandy said. "Well... I'm sure Keiichi san and Toshio sat down and talked things out, and everything was fine after that!"

"Yeah," Megumi said. "There's something you need to know about Kei chan," she said. "You see... you've never actually _seen_ Kei chan... super pissed. Kei chan... well... he takes his job as big brother protector really... really... _really_ seriously." She cleared her throat. "And.... well... when you throw in the fact that he was mad, hurt and had been working out steadily for two years... well..."

888

To say that Toshio Mizuno screamed like a little girl wouldn't be an inaccurate statement. Quite the contrary, when his back struck the wall, anyone passing by Megumi's apartment would probably say to themselves, "My, I hope that eight year old girl is all right!"

"I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!" Toshio cried as Keiichi lifted him by the collar and held him against the wall. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE SOMEONE ELSE! I SWEAR!"

"KEI CHAN, DON'T KILL HIM!" Megumi screamed.

"Well," Keiichi hissed, "Just who did you think I was?"

Toshio swallowed. "I... thought you were one of Megumi's other boyfriends..."

Keiichi blinked in shock. "Wait... Did you just call my _sister_ a _slut_?!"

"NO! NO!" Toshio cried. "I didn't! I mean... She and I..."

"'She and _I_'" he asked. "What do you mean, 'she and I?'"

"Well... when I say, 'she and I,' I mean... that... you know..."

Keiichi's eyes went wide. "Are you screwing my innocent little sister?!" he gasped out.

"Kei chan, Jesus Christ!" Megumi complained.

"So let me see if I can summarize this little screwed up book report," Keiichi said. "You are... having relations..." he bit out, "With my little sister. And when you saw me, you thought I was one of my little sister's other boyfriends, right? So you hit me..."

Toshio nodded quickly.

"Okay," Keiichi said dangerously. "What's your name?"

"T...Toshio..." he said.

"Wait a second," Keiichi said. "Aren't you the little drama club guy who can't change a flat?"

"Yeah, that's him," Megumi said. "It's okay, Kei chan. He's okay. It's... It's my fault."

Keiichi glared into Toshio's eyes. "Do you agree with that assessment there, Hamlet?" he asked. "Is it all her fault?"

Toshio looked from side to side, sensing a trap. "Um... no?"

"Go on," Keiichi prompted.

"It's... um... all... _my_ fault?" he asked.

Megumi sighed. "He thought there were other guys because I didn't want to commit," she said. "It was just easier to say I wanted to see other people. I..." She ran her fingers through her hair. "Goddammit, I _am_ like you..."

"So," Keiichi went on. "You came over here to what?" he asked. "Hit her? Slap some sense into her?"

"No! I would never do something like that..."

"He really wouldn't," Megumi said. "He's harmless!"

"Yeah, I'm harmless!" Toshio cried.

Keiichi growled. "So why did you come here?" he demanded.

"I want Megumi to go steady with me!" he blurted.

"Oh, Toshio, that's so sweet," Megumi gushed.

"Please, Keiichi," Toshio went on. "You're Keiichi, right?! Megumi goes on about you all the time!"

"Kiss my ass some other time!" Keiichi growled.

"Right! Right!" Toshio replied. "I... I just... Look... Look, man," he said. "It took me three hours to work up the nerve to come over here and talk to her about this, okay? And when you opened the door like you owned the place and... and I thought you were saying you were her boyfriend... I just... I just lost it for a second, okay? I... I love your sister. I do..."

Keiichi released him, and Toshio took a deep, relieved breath. Megumi rushed up and hugged him.

"Jeez," Toshio breathed. "So... so are we cool?"

Keiichi pointed at the side of his jaw. "Oh, I owe you one," he said. "I'm just not going to address it at this point in our relationship."

The pilot took a breath and came down off his adrenaline high. "Well," he said. "I'm going to go home and ice this..."

"Kei chan," Megumi began quietly. "You want me to get some ice and..."

"No," he said. "I... um... I think I've done enough here." Now that the truth was out and his anger was leaving him, he was starting to feel like the bad guy. "You guys have a lot to talk about. Toshio..." He extended his hand to shake it, and Toshio flinched. "Wow... you're a jumpy thing, aren't you?" He bit his lip. "Yeah, I should go."

Megumi gave Toshio a kiss. "Give us a minute, okay?" she asked softly. Toshio nodded and went into the living room. She turned to Keiichi. "Wow," she said with a nod. "Now, if you would just put that much passion into _your _relationships, everything would be okay."

Keiichi rolled his eyes. "You could have told me," he said.

She shrugged. "Wasn't sure it was serious until just now."

He smiled and turned to go.

"Kei chan," she said, stopping him. When he turned back, she smiled. "Just so you know... when I say shitty things about your relationships... I'm just doing for you what you did for me."

He smiled. "I know. Tell me how things turn out," he asked before turning and walking down the block toward where he parked the Beemer.

Megumi watched him go and smiled before turning back to him. "See?!" she called out to her boyfriend. "I told you he'd like you!"

888

Keiichi entered the shrine residence with his hand on his jaw. Now that the adrenaline of meeting his sister's boyfriend had worn off, the pain had come in at full force.

"Great," he muttered as he walked toward the kitchen. "I got laid out by a guy who wears tights for a living."

"Keiichi?"

He looked up as Peorth entered from the kitchen. She saw him cradling his bruised jaw and rushed toward him. "Are you all right?! What happened?"

"I'm fine," he said. "Met Megumi's new boyfriend. Nice guy. He punched me. It's an actor thing."

"Mon Dieu!" she cried, taking him by the shoulders. "Sit down!" She ran into the kitchen and came back a moment later with ice wrapped in a dish towel. She knelt down on the floor across from him and reached out, tenderly touching the make-shift ice pack to his jaw.

"How's that?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, that's good," he replied, closing his eyes. "Thanks."

"Fighting with Megumi's paramour," she whispered with a tsk-tsk. "I suppose she's fortunate to have a brother willing to do such a thing."

"I guess," he said uncomfortably. He thought on it for a moment and smiled. "You really think so?"

"Is it so strange to?" she asked.

"Well... It's just..." He broke off, unsure he wanted to say more. "I can't imagine Belldandy thinking so," he finally admitted. "She probably would have thought I should make him tea and talk things out."

Peorth shrugged. "A man has responsibilities to the women in his life," she told him. "All of them. A man who's not willing to take action to uphold those responsibilities... isn't much of a man."

"Hmm," he replied, unsure what that meant. Whatever it meant, Peorth seemed to approve.

"While a woman has her own responsibilities," Peorth went on. "And should she fail in those, she could hardly be called a woman." She adjusted the ice pack on his chin.

"Like what?" he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

She smiled at him. "Well, for instance, it's a woman's responsibility to tend to the man in her life when he returns from beating up an actor."

He chuckled and winced immediately as his jaw protested. Peorth's smile widened as she pressed the ice pack against his wounded face.

"Hey!"

They turned to the door. Urd stood there just until she realized Keiichi was hurt. She stepped toward him and knelt next to the man. "What happened?!" she demanded, checking the bruise.

"I'm fine," he assured her. "I met Toshio today."

"The actor?" Urd asked skeptically. "He did this?"

"Yeah," Keiichi replied.

Urd rolled her eyes and stood up. "Walk it off, girly-man," she said, starting for the kitchen.

Keiichi grinned and rose to his feet. "Gee, thanks for the concern," he told her.

The Norn returned a moment later with a beer in her hand. "Hey, if you want to go to the emergency room and tell them you got beat up by a guy in tights waving a fake sword, be my guest."

"Pass," he said.

Urd's eyes came to rest on Peorth. "Oh, Peorth," she said with a touch of acid. "I'm sorry. I forgot you were there. You can go now if you want."

"Urd," Keiichi replied, truly shocked.

"Actually, now that I know Keiichi is all right, I'm going back outside," Peorth told them. She smiled and rested a hand on Keiichi's shoulder. "Keiichi," she said in farewell before walking out of the room.

Urd's eyes tracked her. No biting comeback? No argument? No temper tantrum? That cinched it. She was up to something.

She turned and found Keiichi glaring at her. "What?" she asked.

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

"What?!"

"You didn't have to snap at her like that," he chastised her. "She was only helping me."

She rolled her eyes. "Keiichi, there's something going on here..."

"Based on what?" he demanded. "So far she's been nothing but nice."

"And that's normal for Peorth in _what_ way again?" Urd argued. She waited for him to answer. "Trust me. She's up to something."

"Look, she's upset about Belldandy," Keiichi told her. "You said it yourself. She's only had six weeks. She's Belldandy's friend."

"She's a goddess, Keiichi," Urd bit back. "This isn't a quarter of the issue that it is for you or Skuld."

"Still, would it kill you to be nice?" he asked. "She's a guest."

Urd rolled her eyes again. "You're only defending her because she's draping herself all over you."

"She is not," Keiichi argued.

"She is," the goddess told him. "I swear the girly-girl act makes me want to puke."

He arched an eyebrow. "What are you? Jealous?" he asked.

She froze for a moment. "Jealous?!" she cried. "Of what?! If she wants you so bad, she can have you!" She laughed.

_I'm going to kill her!_ she thought to herself.

"Okay, you're starting to sound a little weird," he told her.

"You're weird!" she shot back reflexively.

They stared at one another for several moments, both realizing they had no idea what to say to each other at the moment.

Urd thought back to her shoot. Only a few hours before she was standing in her underwear pretending to seduce this man, and now she couldn't even come up with anything to say to him. Finally, she said the only thing she could think of.

"Fine, I'm sorry," she said. "I'll be nicer to her."

Keiichi eyed her for a few seconds. "You really think she's up to something?"

She sighed. "Hell, Keiichi, I don't know," she said finally. "But I'm going to find out."

"Urd," he warned.

"Don't worry," she assured him. "I'll be subtle."

888

Peorth heard the bedroom door close behind her and whirled around to find Urd standing there, her arms folded over her chest. The rose goddess nodded. She knew this conversation was coming.

"Urd," she said as she removed her jewelry, placing her necklace on the small table. "You appear troubled."

"What are you up to?" Urd asked plainly.

Peorth wasn't about to be cowed this time. In front of Keiichi she had to maintain appearances. But they were in private now, and she _owed_ Urd an explanation, regardless of how she'd been treated.

She removed a bracelet. "What exactly should I be up to?" she asked.

"This act you're putting on for Keiichi," Urd went on. "You're pouring it on pretty thick. New clothes... You're even trying to be subtle, but I can see it."

There it was. Peorth took a breath. She had hoped she wouldn't see it at all, but there it was. Back when she was trying to seduce Keiichi away from Belldandy, Urd had often talked to her, tried to warn her away, tell her it was futile, always in a bored-sounding, teaching voice, as if Peorth were an errant school girl who couldn't figure out why X never equaled Y. But this was different. She could hear it in Urd's voice.

The fear.

"What I can't figure out," Urd went on. "Is why."

Peorth offered her a sympathetic look. She took no pleasure from this. In another time and place she might actually be rooting for Urd.

She took a breath and folded her arms over her chest. "I'm doing it for you."

"Um... thanks?" Urd replied. "But no thanks. I don't know why you think throwing yourself at Keiichi is going to do me any good, but..."

Peorth stepped up into Urd's face. "You're in love with him."

Urd froze, her mouth half-open and her eyes wide.

The rose goddess turned away from her. "This is the part where you deny it..."

"That's just crap!" Urd cried.

"... and then you ask what makes me think that..."

"I mean, how crazy do you have to be to think that!?" Urd asked.

"... and then assume I have some other scheme."

"What are you _really_ up to?" Urd obediently asked.

Peorth sighed. "Urd, I don't know how long you've had these feelings for Keiichi, but Almighty in Heaven, I can see it in your eyes every time you look at him," she said. "I hear it in your voice when you say his name." She reached out and placed a hand on Urd's shoulder. "It's natural for two people who are grieving as you both are to seek one another out in such a fashion. I think it's a testament to your strength of will that you haven't acted on those feelings... but that day is coming."

Urd angrily brushed her hand away. "Where the hell do you get off..."

"Urd," Peorth interrupted firmly. "I'm your friend. I'm Keiichi's friend.... and I'm Belldandy's friend. It's only a matter of time before you get wasted and do something stupid that you will regret _forever_!"

"You're an idiot," Urd told her plainly, desperately trying to rally.

"You've accused me of scheming and idiocy," Peorth noted. "But still not of lying."

Urd said nothing.

Peorth waited for her to break, but Urd didn't go for the bait.

"So what's your brilliant plan then?" Urd demanded. "How does betraying Belldandy help keep people from betraying Belldandy?"

Peorth turned away from her and bent over, touching the wicks of three scented candles that came to life as her fingers made contact. "You must have given this some thought, Urd," she said. "You must have realized the kind of damage it would do to your relationship with Belldandy if it were _you_ that made Keiichi happy. I know you. You love Belldandy. The thought of betraying her like that must rend your heart."

Urd glared at her as she continued to light candles.

The brunette took her silence as tacit agreement and went on. "You don't want to betray Belldandy, but you want Keiichi to be happy. Compounding this, you also somehow want Belldandy to get Keiichi back when she returns." She stood up and turned back to her. "And you know all these things are impossible."

"Get to the damn point, Peorth!" Urd snapped. "Winter Storm comes on in five minutes and I want to zap you before then."

But the rose goddess would not be rushed. "It's simple," she said. "I enter a relationship with Keiichi..."

Urd's blood started to boil.

"... and when Belldandy comes out of her seal, I let him go," Peorth finished. "Keiichi gets to enjoy the love of a goddess, Belldandy is certain to forgive and take him back, and you don't have to betray your sister. Everyone wins."

"Everyone _wins_?" Urd hissed. "Did you really just say... that pretending to love a man and stringing him along just so you can dump him when..._IF_... Belldandy comes out of her seal... is a _win_?"

Peorth straightened indignantly. "In this case... oui."

Urd was shaking with rage. "How long?" she demanded in a quiet hiss. "A year? Ten years? What will you do when he really does fall in love with you? Wants to marry you? Have children with you? Will you come clean with him... or will you keep up the pretense?"

"I'll guide his decisions," Peorth told her. "There are ways."

The Norn slapped her across the face. Peorth covered the red mark on her cheek and blinked in honest surprise.

"I want you out of my house," Urd hissed at her. "Right now."

Peorth grit her teeth. "It's not your house," she told her straight out. "It's Keiichi and Belldandy's house! Nothing you do or say is going to change that. Nothing _I_ do or say is going to change that. You want to do what's best for Keiichi? Leave! I'll see to it that he's happy until Belldandy comes back. And then I'll fade away and let them be together. _You_ can't do that! You _won't_ do that!"

"I want you out," Urd gasped out, too enraged to breathe.

"I'll leave," Peorth assured her. "Just as soon as you tell Keiichi why... and he asks me to go."

888

Urd slammed the door so hard the aged frame splintered with a loud crack. She paced back and forth in front of the back door, shaking her head, her teeth biting her lower lip so hard it drew blood. It took every ounce of strength in her soul to keep from burning the life out of Peorth's eyes.

How was it that a goddess with demon blood could see the evil in that plan, but a full goddess first class couldn't?

_Let her,_ a part of her mind argued with a metaphorical shrug. _Sounds like a good deal from Keiichi's end. He spends the next God-knows-how-many years being waited on hand and foot by a goddess, still gets Belldandy if she comes out of her seal and he gets to tap Peorth every night. Shoot, where does he sign up?_

_Not funny!_ she bit back mentally.

She continued to pace. "What do you think I should do, Elegance?"

Her angel rose from her back, and Urd turned to address her. World of Elegance offered her a baseball bat with a cherubic smile.

"Tempting," Urd admitted. "But what do I tell Keiichi afterward? 'Oh, don't worry about me beating the glory out of Peorth, Keiichi. I only did it because she wanted to be your girlfriend.'"

The angel arched an eyebrow.

"No," Urd told her firmly. "That is _not_ the reason... She... What she wants to do is... it's simply... Almighty best and greatest, Elegance, _I'm_ an expert scheming bitch in good standing and even _I_ find what she wants to do abhorrent."

World of Elegance shrugged as if the answer were simple.

"No!" Urd rejected. "I can't tell Keiichi."

The angel blinked at her in puzzlement.

"Because the fallout would make things weird!" Urd told her. "Watch. We'll do a little role-play." She snapped her fingers and identical Urds stepped to either side of her. The one on her right tousled her hair while the one on her left quickly added too much lipstick.

The original Urd turned to the Urd on her right. "Keiichi," she said, "Peorth plans on seducing you, pretending to love you, and being your girlfriend until Belldandy comes back."

Keiichi-Urd looked puzzled. "Well, that doesn't sound very nice," she said in a gruff, imitation male voice. "Peorth, why would you do such a thing?"

The Urd on her left tossed her hair, her eyes going vacant. "Tee hee! I'm a whore!"

Urd rubbed her temples and took a deep breath. "This is serious! Just play the part right!"

"Fine!" Peorth-Urd complained. She cleared her throat. "You think _that's_ bad?! Urd is secretly in love with you and plans to seduce you away from Belldandy forever!"

Keiichi-Urd looked horrified. "Oh heavens! Oh me! Oh my!"

"Yeah," Peorth-Urd replied. "Ooh-la-la! That's some pretty deep shit right there!"

"And... scene!" Urd declared. The doubles stepped back into the goddess, and she turned back to her angel.

World of Elegance's eyes narrowed as she made a very astute point.

"No," Urd scoffed. "No, wrong. It's not true. It's... not... But even if Keiichi believes me, things will be weird." She took a breath and started to pace again. "I need to get her out of here." She saw World of Elegance grinning at her. "What?"

The angel tossed her head from side to side as if singing.

"He is _not_ my boyfriend!" Urd hissed at her.

Elegance folded her arms over her chest and made a suggestion.

"I'm not going to confess," Urd told her icily. "Because there's nothing to confess." She saw her angel roll her eyes and grit her teeth. "There isn't!"

"Hey!"

Urd's eyes went wide as she whirled around and found Keiichi looking down at her from the roof.

"What's up?" Keiichi asked.

"Nothing!" she practically screamed. World of Elegance sighed and shook her head.

The mortal looked at her skeptically. "O...kay... Everything okay?"

Urd rallied and straightened. "Everything's fine." World of Elegance smiled and reached out, touching the back of her mistress's head and sending a subliminal suggestion. "You want some company?" Urd blurted before she could reign it back. She threw a glare at her angel, who was looking away innocently.

"Sure," he said. "Come on up."

The goddess glared at her angel, who was evaporating as she blew Urd a kiss. Urd hopped up onto the roof with a single leap and found the mortal waiting for her.

"Spying on the neighbors?" she asked gamely.

He smiled. "Nah. Just looking at the stars."

She followed him to the other side of the roof and sat down next to him. The goddess followed the mortal's gaze to the stars above but couldn't figure out the allure. They were stars. There were a million of them and they were there every evening.

The silence made her uncomfortable. "So," she began uncertainly. "What's on your mind?"

He shrugged. "The future, I guess." Urd must have displayed a puzzled expression because he elaborated a moment later. "I graduate this coming year. I need to start looking for a internship. Not quite sure where to start."

She wasn't sure what to say. "Do you really have to?"

"I do if I want a job," he told her.

The goddess smiled. "You don't really need one," she told him. "I know if you had your choice, you'd want to just keep flying. You could."

He smiled. "What kind of man does that?" he asked her. "Not the kind I want to be."

"And what kind of man do you want to be?" she asked, half amused, half curious.

"A man who takes care of his responsibilities," he told her, throwing her a glance. "A man who's worthy of them." He looked up at the sky. "I never wanted you... or any goddess... to carry me through life. It's mine. A man works. That's all there is to it."

Urd smiled and looked down at the roof tiles. Peorth had no idea what this man was really like. He deserved better than a woman faking her way through life with him. He deserved a woman who would be honest with him, up front about who she was and what she wanted.

"Did you find out what Peorth was up to?" he asked, changing the subject.

She looked up at the stars again, considering what to say.

"No," the goddess finally told him. He nodded in response and went back to looking at the stars.

_It's a shame,_ she thought. _That there aren't any women like that here._


	17. Child's Play

Disclaimer: AMG and FMP aren't mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 17**

**Child's Play**

Urd stuck the tip of her tongue out the corner of her mouth as she prepared herself for battle. Her opponent was wily and determined, and Urd had lost to her multiple times in the past. This time, she hoped, would be different.

She placed her hand on the control panel and waited for the signal.

"GO!"

The goddess slapped the panel over and over, her hand moving so fast it was a blur. She watched the little hippo head on the board in front of her gobble more and more white pellets, but in the end...

"I win!" Sachiko cried.

"GAH!" Urd cried. "You win again!" she relented.

The girl giggled. "Let's play again!"

Urd smiled and started reloading the board for a seventh game. Listening from the bedroom, Belldandy peeked out into the living room, surreptitiously watching her sister while Megumi was in the bathroom. When the pregnant woman rejoined her, Megumi went and sat down on the futon, letting a breath go as her butt hit the mattress.

"Are you all right?" Belldandy asked her.

Megumi smiled. "I'm supposed to take it easy," she said. "But I think I might have overdone it today."

"Lie down," Belldandy ordered her, approaching the woman and helping her into bed.

"Yeah, but I've got laundry to..."

"I'll fold it," Belldandy told her immediately. "You rest." She picked up a shirt from the laundry basket and started folding.

Megumi smiled and rested her head against the pillow. "Thanks."

"Do you want me to check on Sachiko?" Belldandy asked as she folded.

"Nah, Urd's with her," Megumi told her.

"Hai," Belldandy replied. "But Neesan's never been really comfortable with children."

"News to me," Megumi told her. "She babysits for us."

Belldandy wasn't sure what to say. Her sister? Babysitting? Without wrapping the child in duct tape and sticking her in the closet?

Megumi saw the look on her face. "She's changed a lot, you know," she told the goddess. "I mean, she's not the same Urd who electrocuted Sayoko at the Miss Nekomi pageant thirteen years ago."

"I'm starting to see that," Belldandy whispered.

Megumi turned away, looking out the window. "She likes kids," she whispered sadly. "That's why I'm so glad she's pregnant," she followed up a moment later with a smile. "I was so afraid after what happened, they wouldn't want to try again."

Belldandy paused, and Megumi suddenly went rigid. "So!" she said quickly. "Anyway! Peorth! She... um... she had a plan, stupid as it was."

_Eight years ago..._

Peorth swept the front steps the way she saw the actress do it on TV. She was hardly an expert at domestic work and had no intention of becoming one, but she could muddle through when necessary.

Her plan required her to walk a tight-rope. She could not just imitate Belldandy, because then she was replacing her, and that was something Keiichi desperately did not want to do. At the same time, she had to remind Keiichi of those things that made Belldandy alluring.

The key to Belldandy's attractiveness was not a hot body. Her core strength didn't rest in her legs or her chest, but in her smile, in the kindness of her voice. It was in the little acts of kindness she accomplished every day.

So for the plan to work, she had to adjust her approach. She couldn't just wear trampy lingerie and wait in his bed as she tried to last time. He wasn't drawn to that. It was the subtlety. It wasn't the miniskirt and innuendo. It was the smile and the "Good morning, Keiichi."

And that was what she was really doing on the porch that morning, sweeping the front steps and waiting for him to walk by just so she could say, "Good morning, Keiichi." Nothing more. Nothing less.

Of course, it took a great deal of poise to continue to stand there while another goddess stood nearby and glared at her.

She resisted the urge to sigh. "Something on your mind, Urd?" she asked.

The goddess glaring daggers at her folded her arms over her chest. "I was just trying to find the best way to tell you your plan was doomed to failure."

"Weren't you going to tell Keiichi you wanted to see me gone?" Peorth asked her as she swept.

Urd ignored the question, taking a step forward. "The System Force has been on our asses since the first day. If you so much as cut between us in line at the movies, it drops a house on you."

"Urd, you _are_ aware that while the System Force acknowledges you as the primary agent of Belldandy's contract with Keiichi, it doesn't mean you're the only one who can fulfill it."

"Be sure to remember that when the tornado dumps that farm house on your head," Urd told her.

"I understand that part might have slipped by you since you're not a granter and have no experience at this," Peorth told her. "But as long as the word of Keiichi's wish is met, the wish is considered fulfilled." She paused her sweeping and looked up. "Come to think of it... a goddess first class, a granter... Technically, I'm closer to Keiichi's wish than you are."

Urd grit her teeth so hard they started to hurt. "Right... because as I recall Keiichi's wish correctly, his wish was, 'I wish a goddess like you would jerk me around for a decade or two.'"

"All you have to do, Urd," Peorth told her. "Is tell Keiichi why you want me to leave. If he tells me to go, I'll go."

"Don't you care at all that this entire situation hurts him?" Urd asked.

"Of course I do," Peorth told her. "Don't you understand? I'm trying to chart a course here that will _avoid_ a greater pain, not only for him but for you and Belldandy. Do you think I like the idea of getting so close to a man knowing that I'm going to have to give him up at some future moment?"

"Well, you're not going to get the chance," Urd told her. "Because I'm going to be all over you until either Belldandy comes back or you leave."

"Urd san!"

They turned and found Teletha walking up the stone path toward them.

"Teletha? What are you doing out here?"

"I wanted to talk to you in private," the CEO told her, all but ignoring Peorth as she took the Norn by the elbow and led her away.

"Yeah, okay," Urd said, a little perturbed by switching gears so suddenly.

Teletha looked around as if searching for spies or ninjas before smiling at her. "What are you doing this weekend?" she asked.

"Oh!" Urd said at what turned out to be an innocent question. "Well, Keiichi and I are going to Okinawa for the Kadena air show and..."

"Great!" Teletha interrupted. "I was hoping you'd say nothing. Because I need you to volunteer at the Nekomi Children's Hospital Saturday and Sunday."

Urd blinked. "Um... what?"

"Yes!" Teletha affirmed. "Nothing too in depth. Just read some story books, play some Monopoly, talk to the kids. Stuff like that."

"No, Teletha, look, I'd _love_ to spend a weekend cleaning up after a bunch of brats, but I _really_ have to be on Okinawa this weekend..."

"We have a contract," Teletha pointed out. "And that contract says you must attend events as directed by the CEO."

"But why?" Urd asked.

"Paperwork."

The goddess blinked. "Paperwork?"

"Paperwork."

Urd shook her head and blinked. "Okay, you lost me."

"Urd, go to the children's hospital," Teletha told her, starting for the gate. "Saturday morning, nine a.m."

"Teletha!"

"I mean it, Urd!" the CEO called back. She disappeared out the torii gate...

Leaving Urd with a very huge problem.

888

"Hey, Keiichi, can you do me a favor?" Urd asked, poking her head into his bedroom door.

"Yeah," he said, tapping a few keys on his ancient computer. "What?"

Urd bit her lip. "Could you cancel the Kadena air show?"

His fingers stopped moving. "Um... no?"

The goddess bit her lip. "Even if I said 'please?'"

"Urd, what's going on?" he asked.

"I have to work," she said. "I can't go."

It took Keiichi a minute to figure out the problem. "You think... You think the System Force will be okay with that?"

"Is it _ever_?" she retorted. She finally stepped into the room and started to pace.

He leaned back and put his hands to his head in frustration. "Crap!"

"I'll quit," Urd told him. "No problem."

"Teletha is our biggest sponsor," Keiichi pointed out. "We can't alienate her."

"Can someone else fly the Shinden?"

"Not demo," he told her. "Crap! Crap! Crap!"

"Perhaps I can help?"

They turned and found Peorth standing in the doorway.

"Perhaps you can't," Urd told her, all but hissing at her.

"Sorry, Peorth," Keiichi told her. "But in this case, I don't think there's much you can do."

"Actually, Urd and I were talking about this just today," Peorth told him as she stepped inside. "You're concerned that the System Force will react poorly to you being apart, non?"

"Yeah," Keiichi replied. "We've managed to duck it until now, but..."

Peorth smiled. "Well, then the solution is simple. I'll go to Okinawa with you, and Urd can go to work."

Keiichi blinked. "But Urd is..."

"...not the only goddess who qualifies," Peorth finished for him. "As long as the letter of your wish is upheld, the System Force will be lenient. And for that to happen, a goddess like Belldandy must be at your side."

The boy gave this some thought.

"No, wrong," Urd interjected. "This is a bad idea."

Peorth shrugged. "If it doesn't work, the System Force will make its displeasure known immediately. Then you've lost nothing."

Keiichi took a breath and nodded. "It's a shot."

The Norn grit her teeth again and glared at Peorth, who only smiled sweetly. She looked from Keiichi to her to Keiichi again and nodded.

"Fine, have a good time," she growled, storming out of the room.

Keiichi sighed. "Well," he told Peorth. "I guess we're going to Okinawa."

"I can't wait," she said. "It'll be fun!"

He nodded and smiled a little. "Yeah, it'll be a good time." He paused for a moment. "Thanks, Peorth. I don't know what's gotten into Urd lately, but..."

"I'm here to help, Keiichi," she said. "It's my pleasure." She turned and started out the door, pausing for just a moment to turn back to him. "Oh, and Keiichi?"

"Yeah?"

She smiled brightly. "Good morning."

888

Urd was in a pissed off mood long before she walked through the main door of the children's hospital to report for her "volunteer work." Keiichi and Peorth had left the day before, and to Urd's great disappointment there had been absolutely nothing on the news about a house falling on a foreign woman in Okinawa.

She stopped at the desk and addressed the nurse there. "Hey," she said in way of greeting. "My name is Urd. I'm volunteering here today."

The nurse smiled and looked up her name in the computer. "Yes, Ma'am. Thank you for coming out. It looks like you're going to be working on the third floor." She have her a packet of paperwork and pointed at the elevator. "Just announce yourself at the desk, and your volunteer captain will assign you a task."

"Great," Urd muttered, starting for the elevator.

_It had to be kids,_ she thought. It wasn't that she necessarily _hated_ kids. She just... hated kids. And she didn't consider a rocking weekend to be hanging out with a bunch of sniffling munchkins listening to them whine about Pokemon cards...

She entered the elevator and hit the button for the third floor, muttering under her breath.

"Paperwork? What the hell does that even mean?" she asked herself. She was supposed to spend the weekend wiping noses for paperwork? That didn't even make sense. Meanwhile, Keiichi was on a tropical island with Peorth, probably...

The door opened, and she stomped out.

_You know what? Screw this!_ she thought. _I'll tell this "volunteer captain" that something's come up and she's going to have to find someone else to wipe these little urchins' bottoms. Then I find the nearest TV and go to..._

She broke off as someone stepped into the hallway in front of her. Stopping short, her eyes went wide as she looked the little girl in the pink pajamas up and down. The girl, about six or so, didn't say anything. She just stood there and looked at Urd with a single dark eye. The other was gone, obscured beneath scarred skin that resembled melted wax and covered the entire right side of the girl's face. The raven hair that luxuriously covered the left side of her head appeared only in patches on the right. It was the saddest sight Urd had ever seen.

The goddess stared at the girl for another moment, unsure what to say or do. Recovering from her surprise, she knelt down and held out a hand.

"Hey there, Sweetie," she said quietly. "Can you help me? I'm trying to find the front desk."

The girl turned and ran down the hall, hiding behind the legs of another woman in a pair of tan slacks and a blue blouse. The woman reached down and caressed the girl's hair.

"Keiko," she said. "Is that any way to say hello?"

Urd stood up and straightened her shirt. "Hi," she said uncertainly. "I'm here to volunteer."

The woman smiled and adjusted her glasses. "Oh, good," she said. "I'm your volunteer captain then." She bowed. "How do you do?"

"I'm... I'm good," Urd told her. "My name is Urd."

The woman blinked and smiled. "The Norwegian!"

The goddess was taken aback. "Um... do I know you?"

"No," the woman replied with a smile. "But we have a mutual friend. I'm Kiyoshi Takeda. It's a pleasure to meet you."

888

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Peorth asked as Keiichi made his post-flight check of the Shinden. She and the rest of the Aeronautics Club had flown down commercially while Keiichi flew the Shinden the nearly one thousand miles to Okinawa. It was a hot, cramped, long trip, and right now all Keiichi wanted was a bath and a bed.

Peorth watched him as he knelt under the left wing, checking for loose panels. The white skirt she wore waved lazily in the tropical breeze as she tried to position herself so that Keiichi would have no choice but to see her legs.

"Nah," he said, ignoring the view. "Everyone checked in at the hotel?"

"Oui," she replied. She reached into her purse and pulled out a key card. "I got you a room next to mine."

"Cool," he said, reaching up to take the card and put it in a pocket of his flight suit.

"So what now?" she asked.

"Food, bath, sleep," he told her.

"In that order?" she quipped.

"Well, the bath might come first," he relented, getting a whiff of himself.

"How about this?" she asked. "I'll prepare some dinner and bring it to your room. It should be ready by the time you're done with your bath."

Keiichi's stomach rumbled, and he really didn't feel like getting take out."Okay," he said. "That actually sounds pretty good."

He saw Peorth's face brighten and suddenly felt good about accepting her offer.

"Bon!" she said. "I'll go start cooking!"

She turned and dashed off. He smiled and turned back to the Shinden.

"You going to be okay here?" he asked.

_Oh, yeah! I'm good!_

As the airplane said this, an American Airman driving a tractor towed a sleek-looking fighter to the parking ramp next to the Shinden. Keiichi gave a low whistle at the sight of the American F-22.

_Ooooh!_ he heard the Shinden say. _Hey there, GI! Buy an older gal a drink?_

Keiichi rolled his eyes. "I'll leave you two to get acquainted."

888

"Okay, everyone!" Kiyoshi announced, clapping her hands together. "I want to introduce you to a special friend of mine. This is Urd san." She gestured to the goddess, who looked out at the group of children, each sporting scars, burns or bandages.

Urd gave a meek wave. "Hey," she said.

"Urd is from a place called 'Norway,'" Kiyoshi told them. "Who knows where Norway is?"

One little boy raised his hand. "Is that where they make all the chocolate?"

Kiyoshi turned to Urd expectantly.

Urd, who had never actually been to Norway, floundered. "Um... Yeah!" she said. "They make the greatest chocolate in the world there!"

A little girl with bandages on her arms raised her hand. "Can we have some chocolate?"

"Hoshi, it's not snack time yet," Kiyoshi told her. She checked her watch. "But, actually, it is. I'll go get your snacks, and Urd san will tell you more about her home in Norway."

The heiress gave her an encouraging smile and stepped out of the burn ward. Urd turned to the children, who all looked up at her expectantly.

"Hmm," Urd noted. "Okay, none of you want to hear anything about Norway," she told them. "Which is good, because I don't know anything about Norway. What I _do_ know... is magic!" She snapped her fingers and a chocolate bar appeared in her hand with a puff of purple smoke.

The children cheered.

888

Keiichi turned on the TV and looked for a race to watch. He had just managed to find one when he heard a knock on his hotel room door.

"Keiichi? Are you decent?" Peorth asked through the door.

"Yeah, just a sec," he replied. He walked to the door and opened it, finding Peorth there with a bento basket in one hand and a much larger basket in the other.

He made way for her, and she stepped inside. "As promised, I brought you dinner," she announced, offering the box to him.

"Thanks!" he said, gratefully taking the box. "I just couldn't do fried take-out after a flight like that."

"I hope you like it, Keiichi," she said, fingering the handle of the other basket. She looked away and blushed a bit. "I... um... I need a favor," she said.

He looked up at her and arched an eyebrow. "Everything okay?"

"Oui," she answered with a hint of embarrassment. "It's just that... The bath in my room is broken. You turn it on, and this brown... gunk... comes out of the faucet. They're going to fix it, but..." She paused. "I was wondering if I could take a bath in yours?"

The request threw him for a moment, and for that moment the old suspicions came rushing to the fore. But that was a long time ago, and Peorth knew how he felt about Belldandy. The time for juvenile scheming was long past...

... right?

"Sure," he said with a nod.

She sighed in relief and started for the bathroom. "Merci," she said. "I didn't want to switch rooms, but if they didn't fix it in time..."

He hopped onto the bed and started to eat as he heard the faucet in the tub turn on. The goddess in the bathroom started to sing, something in French that Keiichi couldn't make out.

"Keiichi?" she called to him through the door.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for bringing me here," she said. "It's nice to see other places."

He swallowed the rice ball he was chewing before answering her. "I should thank you," he said. "You really got us out of a pickle."

"It's what Belldandy would have wanted, I think, non?" she called.

The boy stopped chewing for a moment at the mention of her name. "Yeah," he answered back.

Peorth seemed to sense his discomfort and was silent for several moments. "I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have said anything..."

"No," he told her. "We _should_ talk about her. She's not really gone."

He heard footsteps and turned his head to find Peorth walking out of the bathroom, a white towel wrapped around her body and another wrapped around her hair. She stepped over to the bed and sat down next to him, looking demurely away.

"It's still hard," she said. "I've only spent any significant amount of time on Earth with her and you. It's hard to... just... look at Earth and see it without her." She looked at him with a sad smile. "And to see what it's done to you... it's heart-breaking." The goddess reached out and took his hand.

"Me?" he said in surprise. "I'm fine."

"You've changed a great deal," Peorth told him, moving a half-inch closer. "When I met you, you were a boy. And now..."

Keiichi casually moved away a few inches, pretending to adjust his seat. It was obvious Peorth was feeling vulnerable. Belldandy's disappearance must have really rattled her...

"Peorth," he said quietly, trying to be comforting. "It's going to be okay. I know it is."

"I just always thought you two would be it," she said. "The love story of the age. And now..." She sighed. "It's depressing." She smiled a moment later. "I put a lot of work into the two of you, you know."

He reached out and hugged her. Peorth smiled as she squeezed him.

_Connection accomplished_, she thought to herself.

"You know what you need?" Keiichi asked her.

"Non," she replied, pulling away with a smile. "What do I need?"

He stood up. "A good time. Come on," he told her. "Go get dressed. It's time to have some fun."

888

"The children really liked you," Kiyoshi told Urd from the other side of the cafeteria table. "Of course, with all the chocolate you brought, it's easy to see why."

Urd shrugged and smiled. "It was... different."

The dinner crowd in the small cafeteria had long since cleared out, leaving the two women relatively alone to share a sea-green table in the back. The sound of dishwashers working in the kitchen drifted over the salad bar to their table, but aside from that there was only silence.

The heiress grinned. "Was that your first time working with sick kids?"

"Yeah," she replied, her happy tone dulling a bit. "I've never really dealt with kids at all, and I've never even seen a child with... well... those kind of injuries." She bit her lip. "Um... it... it kind of hurts," she confessed. "Seeing kids like that..."

"Hai," Kiyoshi replied quietly. "The first time I volunteered to work here, I had to stop an hour into the day. I went into a stall in one of the bathrooms and cried. It can be emotionally bruising."

"So why do you do it?" Urd asked. "I mean, they're not paying you. You don't have to."

Kiyoshi shrugged and pushed the jello block on her tray around with her spoon. "Because what they want is so easy to give them." At Urd's questioning look, she went on. "They don't want anything special, Urd san. They just want to play and be read to and sing songs. When you look at it from that angle, it's hard to say no."

Urd leaned back in her seat. "I guess so."

Kyoshi played with her jello for another few moments before looking away and asking, "How's Keiichi san?"

The goddess couldn't say she was startled by the question. In fact...

"Wow," she said. "It took nine full hours for his name to come up. I'm shocked."

Kiyoshi blushed. "There wasn't a good opportunity," she explained.

Urd smiled. "He's good. He graduates this year."

"What will he do then?" she asked.

The goddess shrugged. "He wants to get a job."

Kiyoshi brightened. "My uncle is on the board of directors for SMS!" she said. "Perhaps he could arrange something!"

Their rooftop conversation came back to Urd, and she shook her head. "No, Keiichi wants to do this on his own," she told Kiyoshi. "He's weird like that."

A sigh passed the mortal girl's lips. "It's not weird," she said. "It's... masculine."

"'Masculine?'" Urd asked. "You should have seen him when we first met. He was a freshman back then. I don't think he'd even know what to do with a girl." She took a slug from her tea. "Shoot, I'm not sure he'd know what to do now."

"He's gentlemanly," Kiyoshi argued. "And so he knows exactly what to do with a woman at exactly the right times."

Urd arched an eyebrow. "Did you and he..."

"No!" Kiyoshi squeaked. She blinked. "Have you and..."

"No!" Urd cried back.

An awkward silence descended over them both.

"So," Kiyoshi went on. "What exactly is your relationship with Keiichi san, then?"

"We're friends," Urd told her.

"Friends?" Kiyoshi asked. She turned away as if considering whether or not to ask her next question. "It's not a... um... business partnership?"

The phrasing made Urd pause. "What do you mean?"

Kiyoshi licked her lips nervously and leaned forward. "I know what you are," she whispered.

888

The girl at the front desk gave him directions to a popular club not far from the hotel, and by the time he and Peorth arrived, several other members of the Aeronautics Club, having received identical directions, were at the bar or on the karaoke stage.

Keiichi wasn't sure if Peorth had somehow foreseen this turn of events and had packed accordingly or had simply pulled the same trick Belldandy had on occasion and used her powers to change her clothing, but the rose goddess was decked out in a red cocktail dress that showed off a good amount of leg. Keiichi, meanwhile, having only one real outfit to wear, was in jeans and a blue t-shirt.

The goddess smiled at him, and the mortal blushed a little in return. "Why don't you go get us a table?" he said. "I need to talk with one of the Z's."

"Oh," she said. "Okay, oui."

She dashed off, taking the gaze of several Marines with her. Keiichi walked up to the bar where the middle Z brother, Brian, was nursing a beer.

"Hey, Jinx," he greeted. "New girl, huh?"

"Not really," he said. He looked over his shoulder and found Peorth sitting at a booth with a couple of men chatting her up. "As a matter of fact," he went on, "Have you met Peorth?"

"Nope," he replied.

"Would you like to?"

Brian looked from side to side, as if Keiichi were speaking to someone else. "Who? Me?"

"Come on," Keiichi ordered.

888

"And just what am I supposed to be?" Urd asked the heiress pointedly.

For a moment, Kiyoshi looked as if she thought she had said the wrong thing. She hesitated, but apparently decided to go all in.

"You're one of them," she said. "Like Sif san. You're a goddess."

"Well, thanks for the compliment, but I'd hardly call myself a..."

"You are!" Kiyoshi cried. "I can tell! I could tell from the first moment I saw you! You have that same... same... ethereal presence that Sif san did!"

Urd cleared her throat nervously.

"You came to grant Keiichi san a wish, didn't you?"

"It's... complicated," Urd admitted.

"May I ask?" Kiyoshi requested. "What was his wish?"

Urd paused, unsure of how to explain. Finally, she just decided to answer the question directly. "'I wish that a goddess like you would always be by my side,'" she quoted.

Kiyoshi sat back in her chair, her hand going to her chest. "That is so romantic."

"Yeah," Urd agreed quietly. "Yeah, it is."

"No wonder he seemed so distracted," Kiyoshi told her with a smile. "He was thinking of you the whole time."

The goddess bit her lip and shook her head. "No, not of me."

"Oh yes he was," Kiyoshi assured her. "He talked about you a great deal."

Urd lost herself in a smile just for a moment. "Me?"

"Hai," Kiyoshi told her. "He thinks highly of you. I think I knew then that I didn't stand much of a chance." She leaned back in her seat and looked up at the ceiling. "I made a wish of Sif san, years ago, to meet the perfect man for me." She chuckled. "I was foolish. I should have known that meeting the perfect man would not guarantee that we would end up together. That takes work."

"You don't think destiny is enough?" Urd asked.

Kiyoshi smiled. "If love were easy, Urd san, everyone would have a happy ending," she said. "As it is, only those willing to work and sacrifice for it get the 'happily ever after.'"

888

Peorth sipped at the drink the waitress had brought her and waited anxiously for Keiichi to return. This was it. Their first _real_ date. With Urd in Japan, there was no one to interrupt or make it a "group date." She was going to make a real, tangible connection with Keiichi.

The trick, she knew, was to take it slow, to let Keiichi come to know her alluring qualities on his own. So unlike her last attempts to seduce him, she was taking this one slow. There was too much at stake to get this wrong, to turn him off early in the game.

She had to be slow, deliberate. Every move had to be made strategically. As the great mortal actor Denzel Washington once said, "This shit be chess, not checkers."

"Hey, Peorth!"

The goddess turned and smiled as Keiichi strolled toward her with another man in tow. She crossed her legs and rested her chin on her hand.

Keiichi smiled and gestured to the other man. "Peorth, have you met Brian?"

"Non," she replied, offering her hand to him. "I'm Peorth."

The American stood there, eyes wide. Keiichi cleared his throat. "Brian is our avionics guy... Aren't ya, Brian?" he asked with an elbow nudge.

"Keiichi! Keiichi!"

They all turned as Cake came running into the club. "Come quick!" she cried. "There's been an accident with the Shinden!"

He turned to Peorth, panic on his face. "I gotta go!" Before Peorth could utter a word, he was following Cake out of the club, leaving Brian there to stare at Peorth.

The goddess sighed, her face screwing up into scowl. "Chess my ass," she muttered. Her eyes found the avionics technology student still standing there. She smiled and gestured to the chair on the far side of the table. "Have a seat... Brian, was it?"

Brian nodded dumbly.

Peorth flashed him her most winning smile. "Please... sit... talk with me some."

The boy practically tripped over himself to sit down. Peorth leaned toward him and smiled. "Monsieur Z," she pouted. "Tell me... about Keiichi."

888

"Sir, I am _so_ sorry!" the Airman told him quickly as Keiichi jumped out of the car and rushed forward. He looked at the Shinden and found absolutely nothing wrong with it. Another Airman in a tractor was pulling the F-22 away.

"What's going on?" Keiichi asked. "There was an accident or..."

"I don't know what happened," the Airman said. "We were pulling your plane away to another area, and suddenly your airplane's nose just jerked to the right and smacked the Raptor!"

Keiichi checked the Shinden's nose cone and aside from a few scratches, couldn't find anything wrong with it.

"So," he said, "You're saying my plane smacked yours... just... suddenly?" He eyed the Shinden and decided he couldn't wait to hear this one. He reached out and touched the Shinden's wing.

_...Little gaijin punk bitch! I'll up-end his entire god-damned worl..._

He pulled away suddenly to give the Shinden time to calm down.

"So," he said casually. "No harm done..."

"No harm done?!" the Airman cried. "The Raptor has a scratch on it! It's gonna cost like three million dollars to fix!"

"Oh," Keiichi said. "Well... what I _meant_ to say was that no harm done to _my_ plane," he explained. "And the next time you move my bird without permission..."

The Airman nodded and chuckled before dashing off after the F-22.

Keiichi leaned against the Shinden. "So?" he asked.

_That uppity punk kid called me an antique!_

"Which one?" Keiichi asked.

_The fighter! _the Shinden reiterated. _So when I had the chance, I nosed over and clocked him! Did you hear him crying?! That was fabulous!_

Keiichi sighed. "Try to restrain yourself a little, okay?" he asked. "I don't have a hundred and twenty million U.S. to replace an F-22."

_Sorry_, the Shinden replied apologetically.

The pilot knelt under the nose and examined it carefully. "Well, you look okay."

_Yeah, that's because I'm made of steel... not "space-age polymers" and other lame crap._

Keiichi did a walk-around, checking the plane over.

_Where's your new girlfriend?_ the Shinden asked.

"Peorth?" he asked incredulously, running his hand along the fuselage. "She's not my girlfriend."

_Oh?_ _The way she was hanging on you, I just assumed..._

"Peorth's going through an emotional time," he said. "She just needs a friend, I think. Trust me, when Peorth wants a guy, there isn't a doubt in your mind."

He climbed into the cockpit and turned on the electronics, giving them a quick check.

"It really bothers you, doesn't it?" he asked suddenly.

_What does?_

"Another fighter, an _American_ fighter, talking down to you," he elaborated. The Shinden didn't respond right away, and he paused. He knew this particular Shinden didn't even get to fly until he and Belldandy had found it under the Auto Club clubhouse five years ago. Hotaru and the Aeronautics Club took her and made her into a rescue and stunt aircraft, but at heart, the Shinden was still an interceptor, designed to win a war lost more than sixty years ago. "I guess it must be kind of disheartening," he finished. "Almost like survivor's guilt."

He heard the airplane snort. _Not really. You see, I'm still around. All those Zeros and Corsairs and B-29s... how many are flying today? But me, I'm still here. I still have a purpose. I get to fly. I know I never accomplished what the designers at Kyushu had in mind for me, but _someone _had a purpose for me beyond that. One day I'll know what it is. Until then, I'm flying, they're not. What else could a girl want?_

"You think you have a destiny like that?" he asked.

_Doesn't everybody?_

He chewed on that for a moment. "Yeah, I guess they do."

888

There was a knock on the door, and Urd poked her head inside. "Hey," she said quietly. "Everything okay?"

Megumi gave her a smile. "Sure. Sachiko wear you out yet?"

"She's watching TV," Urd told her. She wouldn't meet Belldandy's gaze, instead focusing on her sister-in-law. "We should probably go."

Belldandy nodded. "Hai." She rose from the futon and started stiffly for the door.

"Belldandy?"

The goddess turned and found Megumi looking at them both with concerned eyes. "Urd, I just want to finish this story, okay? Can you give us five more minutes?"

"Uh... Yeah," the elder Norn said with a nod. "No problem." She gave her sister a guilty look and stepped back outside.

Belldandy turned to Megumi, who nodded at the door Urd just stepped through. "Close the door."

The goddess obeyed without thinking, shutting the door before turning back to the younger Morisato. Megumi looked like a woman in the throes of an intense internal debate.

"She's not going to tell you everything," she finally told Belldandy. She bit her lip, aware of how the accusation must sound. "She's not. She's going to hide some things, gloss over others... and you're going to get the wrong idea about... things."

Belldandy knelt next to her. "What kind of things?" she asked. It suddenly occurred to her that despite what her sister had said, her relationship with Keiichi san might not be going as well as she let on. The thought gave her heart a guilty flip, and she quickly squelched it down.

Megumi glanced down at the blanket before answering with a non-answer. "I need you to promise me something."

The goddess nodded and bid her to continue.

"I know you hate this," Megumi told her sympathetically. "I know it. If it were me... I don't know what I would do, but I know how I would feel, and I'd hate her with every fiber of my being for taking him away." She paused. "But... I need you to... I beg you... to bless their marriage."

Belldandy went rigid. She loved her sister, and she loved Keiichi san. But she wasn't sure she could do that. It hurt too much.

"Megumi san," she said. "Whether I agreed with it or not hasn't seemed to affect them up until now. I'm not sure I can..."

"Like I said," Megumi went on. "I know it's hard. But Urd isn't going to tell you this, and if you tell her I told you, I'll deny everything and say you plucked it out of my head with your little mind whammy powers." She went quiet again, trying to figure out the best way to explain herself. "They love each other, but they've had a... difficult... time. Urd... Urd's very strong in a lot of ways, but she's fragile in others, and in some ways..." She put her hand to her head. "I'm not making any sense, am I?"

Belldandy smiled. "It's all right. Not much has made sense today."

Megumi said nothing, and Belldandy reached out and patted her hand.

"Whatever it is, I doubt very much it could faze me after everything else I've heard today."

"Urd had a miscarriage," Megumi announced with quiet suddenness.

It took several heartbeats before Belldandy's mind even registered the meaning of the words. Even then, her heart refused to acknowledge that she had heard them.

"What?" she asked innocently, as if she had misheard something trivial.

Megumi bit her lip. "It was four years ago," she explained. "Something about complications from a child that was mortal and god and demon, she...um..." She cleared her throat and wiped something from her eye. "Um... She blamed herself... said that the Almighty was... punishing her... for taking Kei chan from you."

Belldandy's hand went to her mouth in silent horror.

"It almost broke them up," Megumi told her. "She started to believe that losing the baby was destined, said... 'Irony gets her off.'" She turned to Belldandy and grabbed her hand. "It took them a long time to get over that," she said. "And for awhile, she didn't dare try again. But it's different this time. They have doctors from Heaven checking up on her all the time, they're paying close attention, but I _know_ she's afraid it'll happen again, that what she did to you is going to take another child from her. So I'm begging you... please... _please..._ You don't have to mean it, but tell her you approve of their marriage. Put her mind at ease."

"I... I don't know if I can do that," Belldandy breathed. "I can't lie..."

"Just once?" Megumi pleaded. "Just one time could you tell a little white lie? After that you can leave and never talk to her again if that's what you want, but... just one lie?"

888

Belldandy stepped out of the bedroom, her eyes glued to the floor as she digested what Megumi just told her.

"Hey."

At first, she thought the soft hail was meant for her and raised her head to answer, but instead she found her sister standing down the hall, her back to the younger goddess and her ear at her cell phone.

"No, everything's fine," she said into the phone. "I just... I just wanted to hear your voice for a minute..."

Belldandy stood there silently, not wanting to disturb her sister, but at the same time unable to walk out of earshot.

"No, don't come home," Urd said into the phone. "I'm fine... really, I am... I just..." She sighed, as if giving up. "Just say you love me, okay? That everything's fine and it's going to be fine... That's what I really need right now."

The younger goddess listened, knowing it was wrong to eavesdrop but doing it anyway. She had noticed the difference in her sister's demeanor before, but hearing her talk to her Keiichi san... it only highlighted the changes that have come to her sister's life.

"Okay," Urd said. "I love you too." The cell phone hung up with a beep, and she ran her hand through her moonlight hair. Turning, she saw Belldandy there and cleared her throat.

"Sorry," she said. "I just had to make a call. Are you ready?"

"Hai," Belldandy said.

Urd hugged Sachiko goodbye and called a "Later on," to Megumi before leading her sister out of the house. The two were silent for several minutes as they walked. Finally, Belldandy broke the silence.

"A baby," she noted quietly.

The elder Norn smiled and looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you," she said. "I didn't think it would be a good idea to throw all that on you at once."

Belldandy studied her face and found sincerity there. She nodded. "You must be excited."

"We've wanted a baby for a long time," Urd told her. She cleared her throat again. "It's just never been the right time, you know."

"Was it your trip to the hospital that... that made you think about children?" Belldandy asked tentatively.

Urd smiled. "Megumi told you about that, huh? No, but I admit it was around that time that the issue first came up."

"Keiichi mentioned having children?" Belldandy asked.

"Not Keiichi..."

_Eight years ago..._

Urd was sleeping in. Keiichi didn't get back from Okinawa until tonight, and Peorth wouldn't arrive with the rest of the Aeronautics Club until some time this afternoon. There was no reason to get up early, so she lounged.

Besides, it was raining outside. She could hear the constant thrum of the rain pouring down on the ceiling above her.

So she lounged, half-awake, half asleep, and let her mind wander. She wondered what inroads Peorth had made with Keiichi in their few days together away from Nekomi. It worried her only a little bit.... okay, quite a bit. But there was nothing to be done about it right now. Peorth's expression when she came home would say it all. Until then, nothing to do but sleep.

Her eyes flew open at the sound of three bangs on the front door. Convinced it must have been a trick of her imagination, she closed her eyes, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

Another three knocks, and she gritted her teeth. "Don't people go to _work_ on Monday mornings?" she groused, climbing out of bed and throwing on a robe.

Three more knocks met her as she walked down the hall toward the front door. "I'm coming!" she called. She reached the door and promised swift and blinding violence if it was a salesman.

Opening the door, she blinked in shock at the sight that met her.

Sayoko Mishima, the hollow-eyed vision of a drowned rat, stood shivering in the rain.

"I've got nowhere else to go," she announced.


	18. Haunted By You

Disclaimer: I don't own AMG.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 18**

**Haunted By You**

"Sayoko san?" Belldandy asked in surprise. "I haven't seen Sayoko san in..."

"Twelve years, give or take," Urd summed up. "She graduated and got a job with her father's company."

The two were walking past a train station, heading back to the temple. The sun wasn't going down yet, but it was getting lower in the sky. By her estimate, Belldandy thought it must be getting on four o'clock. She wondered what time Keiichi got home... and wondered what she would say.

"So what happened?" Belldandy asked.

Urd thought for a moment before turning to her. "The best thing that ever happened to her in her entire life."

_Eight years ago..._

Urd placed the tea cup none too gently on the table in front of the poor little rich girl and sat down. Sayoko stared down at it, her clothes dripping onto their kitchen floor.

The goddess watched her warily... "glared" would be a much more appropriate word. Urd knew that Sayoko Mishima was not to be trusted. The last time they had spent time together in this temple, Sayoko had tricked her into listening to Enka in order to steal Marller's seal. The second time, she stole a sweater Belldandy had knit for Keiichi... well... to be fair, she didn't steal it, a dog did that. But she didn't bring it back right away either. Urd wasn't sure why Sayoko would come here, dripping onto their floor, but she wasn't going to extend a hand until she was sure there wasn't a knife in Sayoko's.

"So what's your story?" Urd asked gruffly.

Sayoko didn't raise her eyes. "I want to talk to Belldandy," she said as if asking a cop to see her lawyer.

"Belldandy's gone," Urd told her. "She's in California."

The mortal girl looked up in shock, as if Urd had just kicked her. She swallowed. "Keiichi then."

"He's in Okinawa," the goddess replied. "You've got something to say, you can say it to me, otherwise you can show yourself out."

The heiress said nothing. Urd shrugged and rose to her feet. "Try not to steal anything on your way out," she said.

"Please..."

The word made Urd freeze in her tracks, not the word itself, but how it was said. She studied Sayoko's face, the way she held herself, and realized that she wasn't looking at Sayoko Mishima, wealthy debutante and heir to a fortune, she was looking at a beaten and defeated woman, one who, for some unknown reason, was brought so low that she had gotten it into her head that the home of her only real rival was some kind of refuge.

Urd _had_ to hear this one...

"Please let me stay," Sayoko whispered, the very act of begging causing tears to spring to her eyes.

The goddess sat back down. "Keiichi decides who stays and who goes around here," she said simply. "He'll be back tonight." She eyed the woman up and down. "You look like shit."

No retort. No angry comeback. Sayoko looked at the table and tried to pretend to be dead.

The tiny Devil Belldandy and Angel Peorth appeared on her shoulders. Angel Peorth started to open her mouth, but Urd beat her to it. "Yeah, I know," she said. She took a breath as the two disappeared. "You can wait here for him to get back," she told Sayoko. "Make your case to him, whatever it is. In the meantime, why don't you take a bath, maybe get something to eat."

Sayoko didn't answer.

"Almighty in Heaven, you look like hell," she added.

"I have nothing else to wear," Sayoko whispered bitterly.

"You can throw your clothes in the wash," Urd told her, not quite nicely.

Sayoko seemed to think on this and stood up, walking woodenly down the hall toward the bath. Urd watched her go and wasn't sure whether to think this was the greatest set-up of all time or the saddest thing she had ever seen.

888

"So which was it?" Belldandy asked.

"She was in shock," Urd replied. "Her entire world had been upended. Everything she thought she knew, thought she was, was gone." They walked a few more steps before she continued. "So I decided to cut her some slack until Keiichi got home. I figured if something was really up, I'd have plenty of time to beat it out of her before he landed."

They stopped at an ice cream cart, and Urd pulled some money out of her purse. "You want anything?" she asked.

"No, thank you," Belldandy told her.

The elder Norn must have thought twice. She started putting the money back. "You're right, I..."

"No, please!" Belldandy insisted. "Have some. You need your strength."

"I'm pregnant, Sis, not dying," Urd told her, rolling her eyes, but she pulled the money back out anyway.

She paid for a popsicle and started walking again. "Oh, so," she went on. "I decided to let Keiichi handle her. What I didn't know at the time was that while I was trying to figure out what had happened to Sayoko, Keiichi was encountering something that was going to affect us forever..."

_Eight years ago..._

Keiichi was an hour-and-a-half into his flight back to Nekomi and was enjoying the view. The Pacific Ocean and the islands that dotted it were a beautiful sight even if it did seem a little boring.

Another man might have issues flying by himself over the lonely but lovely Pacific. Fortunately, Keiichi was hardly alone.

_So what are you going to do after you graduate?_

Keiichi considered the Shinden's question. "I have no idea," he said. "I fell in love with flying and just changed my entire life around it without really thinking of what I'd do afterward."

_So why not keep flying?_

He shrugged. "Fly what? You're not my plane. Besides... as much as I enjoy flying, I also like the design aspect. Like when I used to think up concepts for my own motorcycles. I'd kind of like to design my own plane."

_You remind me a lot of Subetai._

"Who's he?"

_He was the guy who designed me,_ the Shinden told him. _He wanted to fly me first, I think. But the Navy wouldn't let him._

"Sounds like you were close," he noted.

_As close as you and that underwear model..._

He cleared his throat and turned red. Before he could come up with a defense, a loud rattling noise made its way up from the engine housing into the cockpit.

"What the hell is that?" he asked.

_Sounds like something got loose... _

Keiichi cursed and looked over his shoulder as if he might be able to see what was wrong. "Some safety wire must have gotten loose... something fell into the housing."

_It was probably Andy Z, that lazy asshole!_ the Shinden complained. _This is the third time something he's wired down has come loose!_

The mortal took a breath and reviewed his options. Should he risk it? They still had six hundred miles to go. If the engine quit on them... well... there were a lot of sharks down there...

"Okay," he said, "Let's start looking for a place to land."

One of the best things the Aeronautics Club did was upgrading the Shinden's cockpit to a twenty-first century design... including a GPS. He checked their position and looked for nearby islands that might have a runway, or, worst-case-scenario, a long strip of flat earth to put down on.

"Here's one," he said. "Kobura Island... But there's no info on it."

_I've heard of that place..._

The pronouncement surprised him. "You have?"

_Yeah... Some of the engineers from Kyushu mentioned it... Said the Americans had taken the airfield at Kobura..._

"That means there may still be a runway," he said, giving the plane some right rudder.

_I don't know, Keiichi,_ the Shinden put in. _Weird stuff supposedly happened on that island. The engineers talking about it didn't sound all that broken up about losing it to be honest._

"Don't have much choice," he replied. "We'll just put down, tie the safety wire back in place and be on our way."

888

Urd left a towel and one of her old robes outside the bathroom door and waited in the kitchen for Sayoko to finish her bath, still puzzling over what could have destroyed the young woman's center so completely. Not that it would make much of a difference in Urd's eyes. The woman had burned too many bridges for that.

But it was Keiichi's decision, and Urd wasn't going to undermine that.

She looked up as Sayoko entered the room in Urd's black silk bathrobe, her soaking clothes wadded up in a ball in her arms.

"You said you'd wash my clothes?" Sayoko asked, some of that old snob returning to her voice.

Urd pointed at the utility room. "Machine's in there," she said. "Feel free."

Looking uncomfortable, Sayoko walked to the utility room and dumped her clothes into the washing machine. She paused for a moment, her hand tapping the top of the machine as she examined it.

The goddess watched this with an arched eyebrow and sighed silently as she walked up to the other woman. She took the detergent off the shelf and poured a cup into the machine. Closing the lid, she turned the dial and pulled it, starting the machine.

Sayoko bit her lip. "Thanks," she said simply.

Urd walked back to the kitchen and sat down. She knew Sayoko was spoiled, but even Urd knew how to start a washing machine.

_You didn't until Keiichi taught you,_ she reminded herself.

Lacking anything else to do, Sayoko followed her into the kitchen and sat down across from the goddess. Urd regarded her carefully for several moments.

"So," Urd began, "You going to tell me what's going on, or do I have to guess?"

Sayoko looked down at the table top as she spoke. "I need a place to stay," she said simply.

"I need a Skittles-shitting unicorn," Urd retorted. "Just buy yourself a hotel or something."

"I can't," Sayoko ground out bitterly.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm broke," the heiress told her with a flash of anger. "My father disowned me."

"Disowned you?" Urd snorted. "What did you do? Screw up the math in your portfolio?"

Sayoko grit her teeth and gripped the table top with her hands until her knuckles turned white.

"Donate too much to charity?" Urd poked. "No, wait," she went on. "You traded that yellow sports car for some shitty American import..."

The young woman glared at her.

"It's none of your business," Sayoko bit out quietly.

"That's a pretty ballsy statement for a woman sitting in _my_ kitchen wearing _my_ bathrobe," Urd retorted. She took a breath and decided to try another tack. "Look, I don't like you, but for some stupid reason my sister did. And while I don't know what the problem is, I know she wouldn't want me to turn you away. So come on. Out with it."

Sayoko sat back for a moment, playing idly with her hair as she considered Urd's words.

Urd waited patiently for her to speak again.

The mortal woman cleared her throat. "Very well," she said regally. She squared her shoulders and looked Urd in the eye, something Urd could tell was very difficult for the woman. "I'm pregnant," she announced.

"Congratulations," Urd told her. "You haven't answered my question."

Sayoko looked away. "It's embarrassing."

"I bet."

The woman turned back to her. "Fine. I met a guy in a bar and brought him home. The next morning, he left, and two weeks after that I found out I was pregnant."

"So?"

Sayoko sighed dramatically, having difficulty believing she had been reduced to explaining the situation to this idiot-woman. "When you are the daughter of a man as rich and as important as my father, you can't just come home, tell him you fucked a man you met in a bar and..." She paused and bit her lip painfully before continuing with a choked sob. "... don't even know his name."

Urd sighed sympathetically. "So he disowned you."

"He cut me off from everything," she confessed. "My apartment, my allowance, my car..."

"I thought you paid for all that stuff," Urd told her.

Sayoko sighed again. "No... My father gave me all of that."

"So then what?" Urd asked.

"I... drifted..." Sayoko explained. "I stayed with..." She snorted sarcastically. "... 'friends.'"

"You mean 'guys.'"

"Yes, I mean guys," Sayoko snarked. "They were perfectly willing to let me stay with them... until they found out I was pregnant, then all of a sudden they 'weren't looking for anything heavy.'" She growled to herself. "Some friends."

"Yeah, imagine that," Urd piped up. "A bunch of guys you paid attention to based on the quality of the stuff they gave you not willing to just change their lives for you."

Sayoko said nothing. She looked away again. "Eventually, I ran out of friends," she said. "I spent last night under an overpass."

"You got a degree, don't you?" Urd asked. "Get a job."

"Who's going to hire a woman who's going to have to quit in six months?" Sayoko retorted bitterly."

"So what's your plan then?"

"I don't have one," Sayoko said, the weakness and defeat returning to her voice. "I don't. I don't know what to do. All I know is... I know Keiichi and Belldandy have always been honest with me. And I need that now."

"You want _honesty_?" Urd asked incredulously.

"Yes, damn you!" Sayoko blurted angrily. "I want to hear that everything's going to be okay, but I don't want to hear it _unless it's true!_"

She looked at Urd expectantly. The goddess remained silent as the seconds dragged on.

"Yeah, I'm not going to say it," Urd told her finally.

Sayoko slumped forward. "What am I going to do?"

Urd sighed, knowing she was going to have to do something she didn't want to.

"You can stay here until Keiichi gets back," she allowed. "And then he'll decide whether or not you can stay until you get back on your feet."

_And he will_, she thought. _Because that's the kind of man he is._

Surprisingly, that thought made Urd smile.

888

The Shinden rolled to a stop, and Keiichi opened the canopy, taking off his flight gloves as he gave the old airstrip and its surroundings a look. The sound of waves hitting the beach washed over him from his left while the skeletons of old buildings sat on his right. Beyond that was the treeline of a thick, canopy jungle. Climbing out of the cockpit, he fished his tool-kit from behind the seat and climbed onto the wing toward the engine housing.

He opened the engine panel, and it took all of ten seconds to find the problem. True to the Shinden's word, someone hadn't tightened down one of the safety wires enough and a bolt had come loose.

"Thanks a lot, Andy Z," Keiichi grumbled.

_I knew it!_ the Shinden cried.

He replaced the bolt and pulled his pliers from the bag, tightening the safety wire.

"Okay," he told the Shinden. "Easy enough." He closed the panel and secured it before dropping the pliers back in his bag. Bending down to pick up the bag, he straightened up again and turned, his gaze passing over the treeline.

It wasn't the wind that made him fall from the wing, it was the sight of the woman in the blue dress standing near the trees. Keiichi's back hit the concrete runway below, knocking the wind out of him, but it was less than two seconds later that he was sitting up, scanning the trees.

He knew he saw her. He _knew_.

"Belldandy?" he whispered. He climbed to his feet and swallowed dryly. His fingers touched the wing as he pulled himself up, and he heard the Shinden's puzzled query.

_Keiichi? Are you o..._

The airplane's voice faded as he dropped his hand from the aluminum skin. For the moment, he was alone on the island.

_Not alone_, he thought. He left the Shinden and walked toward the tree line.

As he approached the edge of the jungle, the sounds of wild life floated over him. Tropical birds argued with futility against a horde of howler monkeys as wind rushed through the palm trees and foliage.

He paused there, feeling a little stupid, but it wasn't as if there were people watching. He cupped his hands around his mouth.

"BELLDANDY!" he called out.

A monkey yelled back at him, but that was all. He stood there, feeling every bit the idiot. He shook his head in self-reproach and turned to walk back to the Shinden.

_Keiichi!_

He whipped around again and scanned the jungle. There was no doubt anymore. That was definitely Belldandy's voice.

"BELLDANDY?!" he called again.

_Keiichi... In here... Help me..._

Steeling himself, Keiichi stepped into the jungle.

888

Peorth stepped into the temple hallway and dropped her bag with a yawn. Mortals had the most foolish ideas about traveling. Imagine, spending hours in a cramped seat aboard a flying metal tube filled with utterly unpleasant people, crying babies and perky stewardesses who deep down wanted nothing more than to throw you out a window. Madness. Pure madness.

She knew Keiichi wouldn't be back by now, but Urd would be around.

"I'm home," she announced as she walked into the kitchen. She blinked as she came face to face with a young woman in a silk bathrobe. The woman took a step back in surprise.

"Ah," Peorth said simply, turning her head as Urd came into the room. She smiled sardonically and folded her arms over her chest. "That you might invite some fun over for the weekend while Keiichi and I were away did occur to me as a possibility," she confessed to Urd. "But even I wouldn't have guessed that you had... um... switched party affiliations..."

Urd laughed theatrically, wiping her eyes and snorting obnoxiously. "Oh! A gay joke! That is so original! You see, I get it. It's funny because there's a woman here, so you automatically assumed I'm a lesbian and she's my lover. That's funny! That's really _really_ funny! Did you come up with that on your own? Is that a 'Peorth original?!' That's really really _really_ funny!"

Peorth grimaced and sighed. "Are you finished?" she growled.

"So so funny..." Urd summed up.

"Anyway," Peorth bit out. "Who's your friend?"

Urd put her arm around a very perplexed Sayoko and pulled her close. "This is Sayoko Mishima," the goddess replied throatily, mashing her cheek against the mortal woman's. "And we just finished up after a whole weekend of hot, nasty lesbo action!"

"GAH! Enough!" Sayoko cried, breaking away from Urd and standing with her back to a wall so she could face them both. "God! You're disgusting!"

Peorth sighed. "Please ignore Urd. We all try to." She smiled and offered the girl her hand. "My name is Peorth."

"Sayoko Mishima," Sayoko told her warily. "You live here too?"

"That's right," Peorth told her. "With Keiichi."

"She's an old friend," Urd said, the other two unsure exactly to whom she was speaking as it could have been one, the other, or both. "Kind of like a tumor that keeps coming back."

She stepped past Peorth as she concluded her thought. "She might be staying with us for awhile. Keiichi's got to make the call when he gets back."

"Oui, oui, oui," Peorth replied dismissively as she waved Urd away. She smiled at Sayoko. "Has Urd given you a room yet?"

"Um... no," Sayoko told her. "I was just going to wait for Keiichi to return."

"It might be several hours, and you look a little... frail," Peorth explained. "Are you ill?"

"She's pregnant," Urd called from the other room, thinking nothing of just blurting out Sayoko's condition. Sayoko glared angrily at the door.

"Mon dieu!" Peorth cried. "You should have a place to rest then. Come, I'll set you up in one of the guest rooms."

"Oh, very well," Sayoko replied agreeably, following the other woman down the hallway. "By the way, what part of France are you from? I go to Paris often, but your accent is a little different."

Peorth smiled back at her. "Oh, I haven't been to Paris in ages!" Peorth replied with a wave. "Not since young Marie wished to be queen of France." She paused and put a finger to her lip. "I wonder how that turned out for her..."

Unsure of what Peorth's mental problem might be, Sayoko simply followed her.

888

It was much darker under the leafy jungle canopy than Keiichi counted on. He almost turned back to get a flashlight out of his toolbag, but he pressed on. His feet squelched on the mossy ground, and it almost felt like he was walking through a swamp. Stepping carefully over fallen branches and trees, he walked deeper into the jungle.

_Where is she?_ he wondered. _And how did she get here?_

_Keiichi... Help me. I'm over here. Hurry..._

He pushed aside branches as he struggled further through the increasingly dense undergrowth, wishing he had a machete to help cut through it. Turning, he tried to see the Shinden through the jungle and found he couldn't even see the light from the edge of the forest. He had a brief moment of claustrophobia, the jungle seeming to pen him in from all sides as if devouring him.

_Help me,_ he heard. It wasn't quite aloud, and it wasn't quite in his mind. It was somewhere in between. He turned back and continued into the jungle.

Keiichi shivered and suddenly realized that somehow the temperature had dropped at least five degrees. He came to a thicket of thick undergrowth and reached out, parting the branches and vines.

_You're almost there,_ he heard Belldandy's voice say. _You're so close to me. Please..._

The vines and leaves parted, and he saw beyond it an even thicker collection of growth, but where the rest of the jungle was vibrant and green, this thicket was dead and rotting. Twisted brown branches oozing black sap was surrounded by an area of jungle that was simply dead. At the base of this thicket was a hole just large enough for him to crawl through.

_I'm inside,_ Belldandy told him. _Hurry..._

Keiichi took a step forward...

_STOP!_

He suddenly froze as Urd's voice pierced his mind and interrupted his train of thought. He blinked and shook his head as if waking from a dream and looked at the thicket again as if for the first time.

_Help me, Keiichi..._

_Don't go in there!_

He stood there, wondering which of the voices in his head to listen to... then realizing how crazy that sounded.

The whole set-up was odd, every last part. He _knew_ he saw Belldandy. He _knew_ he heard her voice. Yet...

_Come on, Keiichi,_ he thought. _This is the part in every horror movie you've ever seen where you start yelling at the actor to turn around..._

_Keiichi, please! I need you! Help me!_

_Don't go in there!_

There was a vote in his head, and there was one more that had yet to be cast to break the tie.

"_Trust Urd,"_ he remembered Sif saying.

_Turn around,_ Urd's voice told him.

He turned slowly, keeping his eyes on the thicket until it was no longer possible. His breath caught in his throat as he heard something moving in the undergrowth behind him. He swallowed dryly.

_Run!_ Urd ordered.

Keiichi took off through the jungle, branches and thorned vines slapping his arms and face as he rushed pell-mell through the undergrowth. He could hear his breath gasping raggedly in and out of his lungs, but also the sound of something moving, something all around him, pursuing him.

It was getting colder as whatever was chasing him narrowed the distance between them. Suddenly, there was a burst of light and Keiichi found himself out of the jungle, the sight of the Shinden welcoming him back. He ran toward the airplane as fast as he could, gaining speed now that he was clear of the vegetation.

His hand hit the boarding ladder, and he rushed up it like a chased squirrel up a tree.

_Hey! What the heck is going on?_! the Shinden demanded as he landed in the seat. He didn't bother explaining. He pulled the canopy down before reaching out and starting the take-off procedure.

"We're leaving!" he said. His eyes fell on the bloody welts on his arms from his run through the jungle and wondered what his face must look like.

_Wait! You left your tools outside..._

"Leave them!" he cried as the engine roared to life. The temperature in the airplane started to plummet, the canopy started to fog over, and he knew whatever it was that was chasing him was approaching fast.

He slammed the throttle forward all the way and tried to push it even further.

_Whoa, there, cowboy! Go easy! I'm not that kind of girl!_

"Off the ground now!" he shouted. He could feel it. He didn't dare look, but he knew something was looking at him through the canopy.

The Shinden raced down the old runway, and he pulled the stick back. The fighter shot into the air, and all he could see below them was water. The canopy started to clear as the temperature started to rise again.

The boy continued pushing the throttle to the wall.

_Keiichi?_ the Shinden interrupted his fearful and fevered mind. _Keiichi, you have to throttle back. You're going to burn out the engine. Keiichi... Keiichi, we're going to burn out. _

He pushed the throttle harder.

_Keiichi! We're going to burn out! Let go of the controls! Keiichi, you're going to kill us! GIVE ME THE FUCKING AIRPLANE!_

He released the controls with a gasp of breath and sat back in the seat, cradling himself with his arms as the adrenaline coursed through his body. The boy let out several breaths as he started to realize just how close to death he had come.

There was something in that jungle. Something horrible. And it nearly had him.

He swallowed frightfully and closed his eyes. "Thank you, God," he whispered. "Thank you."

The boy looked down at his arms and found bloody welts there. He adjusted the rearview mirror and found the same thing on his face. He was a mess.

_You okay now?_

"Yeah," he replied. "Yeah, I'm good. Thanks."

_What the heck happened?_ the Shinden asked as he retook the controls.

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "I don't know."

888

Sayoko buttoned up her shirt and checked herself over in the mirror. She tried to smile, but it faltered a few seconds later. What was she doing here? Had she really fallen so low that she would come here to beg her rival for help?

Yes... Yes, she had.

That answer was inescapable. And unless she wanted to spend another cold night under a bridge, she was going to have to pour on the charm and beg like a beaten dog.

She took a deep breath and let out a whimper. The heiress couldn't believe her father had done this to her. Okay, maybe she had taken advantage of her position a few times, and maybe she had never really appreciated how others looked at him when word got around about her getting wasted and picking up guys, but...

The girl buried her face in her hands. What was she going to do now?

"Sayoko."

She turned and found Urd standing in the doorway.

"Yes?" Sayoko asked in mild exasperation. She really wasn't in the mood to be sociable.

"Keiichi should be home soon," Urd told her. "Before he gets here, I just wanted to have a quick chat."

Sayoko looked her up and down, sensing a trap. "Oh?"

"Yeah," Urd replied, stepping into the room. "You're in trouble. You've hit a very hard point in your life." The goddess's voice dropped a few degrees. "And you're a manipulative bitch."

The heiress glared at her. "I don't see what..."

Urd took another step toward her until they were standing eye to eye. "You are!" she hissed. "And given your history with Keiichi and Belldandy, it would not surprise me in the slightest if you were to try to make Keiichi into your baby-daddy."

"I would never..."

"You would," Urd growled. "And we both know it. Whatever problems you might have in your life, you leave him out of it. Whether he decides to let you stay or not you will _not_ entangle him in your bullshit drama of a life. Because if you do... you and me... we're not going to be friends anymore. And I will show you a level of pissed-off you have never before contemplated as even being possible on this earth."

Sayoko surprised Urd at that point. Rather than retort or insult her, she looked at the ground, absorbing the words.

"No one's ever talked to me like that," she whispered.

Urd said nothing.

"Maybe," Sayoko allowed. "If someone had..." She looked up at the goddess. "You're like her, you know. You'll do anything for him."

The goddess turned and started for the door. "Don't forget it either."

"What am I going to do?" Sayoko whispered. "I don't know what to do."

Urd looked back at her. "You're going to start making decisions," she said. "People do it every day."

888

Keiichi stretched painfully as he walked up to the front door of the temple. He had spent the four remaining hours in the Shinden so wired up, it had taken two of those hours just for his muscles to start to relax. But he was home now, back to some semblance of normality.

But that island... He shivered. The boy was glad it was over. If he had taken just a few more steps...

He paused at the foot of the stairs and collected himself, looking at the night sky and listening to the crickets before going inside. It was warm, but he shivered again anyway.

"Hey," he heard. Keiichi looked up and saw Urd walking down the stairs toward him. "Boy, do I have a story for y..." She broke off as she finally got a good look at his face. "Almighty! What happened to your face!?" The goddess rushed forward and gently touched the welts with her fingers. "What the hell happened to you?" she asked in quiet disbelief.

The mortal responded by hugging her tightly. Shocked, Urd stood there motionless.

"Thank you," he whispered into her ear, his eyes closed.

She reached up and held him to her. "Um... you're welcome?" she replied.

He pulled slowly away and started up the stairs. "I'm going to bed until Thursday," he said.

"Oh," Urd interrupted. "There's something you need to know..."

By then, however, he was already inside, the door closing behind him.

"Oh, well," she said. "He'll find out in a few seconds anyway..."

Right on cue, Peorth's voice echoed through the front yard.

"Keiichi! Ma cheri! What happened to you?! Sit down and let votre amoureux patch you up."

"Hi, Keiichi," Sayoko added. "Um... can I talk to you for a minute?"

Urd watched the door open again and saw Keiichi step out. He sat down on the top step and took a breath. "Crib notes?"

"Sayoko needs a place to stay, and Peorth is just... Peorth."

He nodded. "Okay, tell you what. I'm going to handle this stuff in the morning."

Urd climbed the steps and sat down next to him. "Rough weekend?" she asked.

Keiichi nodded slowly. "Yeah," he said quietly, averting his eyes. "Yeah, pretty rough."

She responded by putting an arm around him.

"How about you?" he asked quietly.

The goddess looked up and smiled a little. "There's some new friends I'd like to introduce you to sometime."

"Sounds good," he replied.

He continued to stare out at the front yard, and she studied him intently. She reached out and took his face in her hands, turning his gaze toward her.

"Here," she said quietly. "Let's work on those welts."

The mortal sat there quietly as Urd, working by starlight, trailed her fingers along the line of each red wound, the skin repairing itself at her touch. His eyes tracked hers as she worked, and he noted how her touch failed to generate any pain on his wounds. He knew Belldandy could do that and wondered if perhaps it ran in the family.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she whispered as her finger moved up his cheek.

"You saved my life," he told her simply.

"Damn, I'm good," she remarked with a kind smile. This finally drew a smile out of him.

She tilted his head to one side and moved her finger gently along his jawline.

"I trust you," he said suddenly. The remark must have surprised her because she stopped suddenly. "I just... want you to know that," he explained.

"I know you do," she said quietly. She looked down for a moment before moving her finger again. "Your funeral."

"You used to scare me," he confessed. "Now..." He trailed off, unsure of how to say what he wanted to. "Now, I can't imagine life without you."

She reached down and took his arm, her fingers working on the welts there.

"I never thanked you," she remarked quietly, staring down at his arm.

"For what?"

"For saving me," she replied, looking up at him with jade-green eyes. "From Hild." She looked down again and shrugged. "You could have... Well...I mean this all would have been over if you had let me go with her, and..." She seemed to give up a moment later. "I thought you were an idiot."

"Gee, thanks," he remarked with a chuckle.

"But looking back I realize that I've grown," she said. "I could have gone in an entirely different direction, would have been a much different woman... demon... than I am now." She switched arms and continued. "The things I am now I am because of you."

"Urd..."

She finished healing his arm and squeezed his hand. "Go get some sleep," she ordered. "Trust me, you have a shitty day coming tomorrow."

Keiichi watched her get up and walk back into the house. He looked down at his arms. Just like that it was as if the day's events hadn't happened. He smiled.

Tomorrow was another day.


	19. Decisions

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 19**

**Decisions**

"What was it?" Belldandy asked, thoroughly haunted by Urd's telling of Keiichi's ill-fated stop on Kobura Island. "He must have told you for you to tell me."

Urd finished her popsicle and tossed the remaining stick in a trash can as they passed by. "Something awful," she whispered. She shook her head. "More later. At that moment, the big concern was what to do with Sayoko."

_Eight years ago..._

Urd caught him as he walked down the back porch steps. She hopped off the railing she was sitting on and fell into step beside him.

"So what did you tell her?" she asked casually as they strolled through the early morning mist.

Keiichi, who had just spent the last hour listening to Sayoko's tale of woe, took a breath, suspecting that his goddess roommate wasn't going to like what he had to say.

"I told her she could stay as long as she likes," he told her. "At the very least until she can get back on her feet, get a job, a place of her own, etcetera."

He expected a fight and was a bit surprised when Urd nodded. "I figured that's what you'd say," she told him. "It's what Belldandy would do."

The boy shrugged. "Whether she'd approve or not isn't the issue," he said, looking at her. "She's not here. Are _you_ okay with Sayoko staying?"

"Hey, Keiichi," she said with a shrug. "It's your place."

"It's just as much your home as it is mine," Keiichi corrected her. "Are you okay with her staying?"

The goddess shrugged again. "She's gotta stay somewhere, right?" She looked up at the trees they were passing under. "Look, if you want her to stay, that's fine. I mean you let Peorth stay..."

"Yeah, but that's different," he told her. "Sayoko's pregnant, and... well... Her situation kind of surprises me."

"How so?" she asked.

"Well... to be honest... I figured she'd take the easy way out," he said. "I mean, it takes a lot of balls for a girl to face her dad and tell him she's pregnant, knowing that he might hit the roof the way he did. I mean, she could have just took some of her allowance and gotten an abortion, but instead she faced her dad, and she's trying to find a way to make things work. Credit where credit's due."

"I suppose so," Urd relented with a sigh. She blinked and turned to him. "Um... quick question."

"Yeah?"

"What's an abortion?"

888

Sayoko walked down the hall, almost physically aware of the huge weight that had been lifted from her shoulders. Keiichi had agreed to let her stay at the temple. All she had to do now was lift herself up from the mud and get her life back.

She looked herself over in the bathroom mirror and frowned. Her red dress had definitely seen better days. It was torn on the left shoulder and the color had faded to an ugly washed out dark pink. She wasn't going to impress a potential employer looking like this.

With no remaining money of her own, she considered asking Keiichi for a loan to get something to wear, but given her very recent reprieve, she didn't want to push her luck so soon. She stepped out of the bathroom and paused as she was passing an empty bedroom. Looking inside, she saw it was Belldandy's old room.

Looking down one end of the hall to the other, she silently stepped inside, a little creeped out by how tidy they had kept the ex-girlfriend's room. However, the closet door was ajar, putting several neatly hung dresses that just might fit Sayoko on display.

Surely they wouldn't mind? She reached into the closet and pulled out a brown and white dress. She sneered a little.

_Brown? Really?_ She tossed it aside and reached for the next.

888

Keiichi faltered while Urd looked at him expectantly. The question was an innocent one, and Keiichi was a pretty liberal guy, all things considered. He believed a woman's body was her own, and that she alone could make decisions for it. The mortal had never had a problem with the stance or even explaining it to others, although it was a private one.

But suddenly he wasn't explaining that stance to a slightly dim woman who had somehow never heard the term "abortion" before. He was going to explain it to a goddess, a living, breathing representative of God Almighty himself, and he was no longer college boy Keiichi Morisato, but the man who was going to have to make the case for a procedure so hotly contested in some countries that national elections could be swayed by one's position.

"Um..." he began. That was a good start. Better than he was afraid of. "Well... it's... a medical thing," he went on while Urd waited. "Where a woman... a pregnant woman... ends her pregnancy."

"You mean gives birth?" Urd asked.

Keiichi was silent, really, really, _really_ hating this conversation. "Er... no." He coughed and collected himself. "Look, you're making fun of me, right? I mean, come on! You've had to have heard of this before!"

Urd gave it some thought. "I think on TV a couple of times in passing," she said. She shrugged. "Never really cared to be honest."

The boy was silent again. "Oh, God," he muttered. "Um... okay, it's like this, sometimes... for a bunch of different reasons... a woman can't have a baby."

"Then how did they get pregnant?" Urd asked confused.

"No, no, I mean... their situation in their lives makes taking care of a baby difficult... or ... sometimes it's an unwanted pregnancy or... I am really not making sense, am I?"

Urd was looking at him in exasperated confusion. "No, you're not. But it might be a culture thing. Just break it down to me in its simplest part."

Keiichi took a deep breath. "A pregnant woman goes to the doctor to not be pregnant anymore."

"So what happens to the baby?" Urd asked.

He didn't say anything, assuming, _hoping_, she'd get it on her own.

She did.

Her eyes widened, and her hand went to her mouth. He heard a choked, swallowing sound, as if the goddess was trying to hold back nausea. She turned from him and leaned against a tree.

In all the time Belldandy had been with him, she had always wanted to learn more about humanity, what it meant, the cultures, the traditions, the good times, the bad. She had always taken great joy in learning new things about her boyfriend's world. Now...

Keiichi was _very_ glad she wasn't here for this.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"This happens a lot?" she asked, her hand still over her mouth.

Keiichi remembered hearing a number a protester had cited on the news once and winced. "Yeah," he confessed. He rallied a moment later, more to reassure her than anything else. "Sometimes, a lot of times, there's a medical reason," he told her. "The pregnancy will kill both the mother and the fetus, so the doctors _have_ to end it."

"And the rest of the time?" she asked.

_Dammit, stop asking me uncomfortable questions that aren't even any of my business!_ he wanted to cry.

"Sometimes... they... just don't..." He paused and licked his lips. "... want it."

"They don't want it," she whispered, staring down at the ground.

He swallowed. "I... I guess Heaven doesn't have this kind of stuff, huh?" he quipped, desperately trying to lighten the mood.

She threw him an angry look laced with disappointment. "Would it _be_ Heaven if it did?" she asked pointedly.

The boy looked sheepish. "I guess not."

The goddess leaned against the tree and took a breath. "I guess... I hope... that means mortal women don't feel them."

"Feel them?" he asked.

She looked over at him and smiled wanly. "A goddess, Keiichi, is very sensitive to the universe around her," she explained. "For instance, a goddess literally _feels_ the moment of conception."

"I didn't know that," he replied quietly.

Urd shrugged. "No reason for you to," she said. "Also, it's literally impossible for a goddess... or a demoness for that matter... to conceive without wishing to."

"So there's no such thing as an unwanted pregnancy," Keiichi concluded.

The goddess paused uncomfortably. "It's... debatable." Before Keiichi question her on that, she went on. "But as I was saying, a goddess can commune with her child throughout a pregnancy. Not communicate really, but she can feel it emotionally, spiritually, physically and metaphysically."

It took a moment for Keiichi to grasp what that all meant. "So... if something... happens... to the baby..."

"We feel it," Urd completed the thought sadly. "It's very rare that a goddess has complications with her pregnancy. _A lot_ has to go wrong, but when it does happen..." She shivered. "I mean, can you imagine it? Feeling..."

"Feeling..."

"Feeling..."

"Feeling that..."

"... feeling that... feeling your own daughter..."

".... d...d... dying inside you..."

"I can't do this..."

888

"I can't do this!" Urd gasped out again, tears running down her face. She reached out and steadied herself against the side of the building they were passing. "I can't talk about this... Please... Please don't make me... I can't..." The words devolved into sobs.

Belldandy grabbed her arm. "Neesan, it's okay!" she said, trying to sound reassuring. "It's all right. You don't have..."

"I can't! I can't! I can't!" Urd babbled, clutching at her midsection as tears fell freely from her eyes.

"Shhhh!" Belldandy shushed her as she guided her toward the building's entrance. "Come on, come with me..."

In the space of only a few seconds, her proud, dignified sister had been reduced to a hysterical, babbling mess. Belldandy pushed the door open with one hand while all but dragging her sister with the other. The inside of a low-scale okonomiyaki restaurant greeted her.

A girl working behind the counter with a large spatula strapped to her back smiled as they entered. "Welcome to Ukyou's! Can I take your... Oh, jeez, are you okay!?"

Belldandy guided Urd to a booth before addressing the girl. "Some water, please," she asked. "And some camomile tea, if you have some."

"No prob!"

The goddess sat down next to the elder Norn and took her hand, which was shivering uncontrollably. "Neesan?"

"Gersemi," Urd whispered painfully, bent over the table as if in great pain. "Gersemi, Mommy's sorry... She's so sorry..." She broke off and sobbed as the girl brought them water and tea.

Belldandy thanked her quickly, turning back just as Urd was pulling her cell phone from her purse with trembling hands. "Keiichi," she gasped. "I need Keiichi..." Her shaking fingers struggled to press the proper buttons before the device flew to her ear. She closed her eyes and rocked back and forth in her seat. "Pickuppickuppickuppickuppickup...." she chanted in a quiet whisper.

Her eyes went wide suddenly. "Keiichi!" she cried into the phone. "Keiichi, I need you!"

Belldandy listened, but couldn't hear what Keiichi was saying, only Urd's responses.

"I'm... I'm... Where am I?!" Urd cried.

The younger Norn swallowed and grabbed the cell phone from her sister. "We're in a little restaurant on Seventh Street called Ukyou's," she said quickly.

For a moment, she thought they had been disconnected, then she heard _his_ voice.

"Belldandy?"

"Please hurry, Keiichi san," she said quickly, unable to say anymore. She hung up and hugged Urd while she continued to cry.

888

"Mischa, I have to go," Keiichi blurted as he tossed off his labcoat and started for the exit.

A bedraggled, unshaven face peeked out the cubicle across from Keiichi's, the tired, glazed eyes watching him walking down the hall. "What you mean, 'go?'" he demanded in broken Japanese.

He didn't bother turning to the Russian MiG driver, even as the man unsteadily followed him down the hall, his cane clacking against the floor. "I gotta go," he repeated.

"Oh, sure!" Mischa declared. "You go. I just tell customer that jet is not ready, but please pay anyway."

"She'll be ready!" Keiichi assured him over his shoulder. "We'll talk later."

Keiichi rushed into the parking lot and pulled his car keys out of his pocket. He quickly unlocked the BMW's driver's side door and got in, shaken by the two things he had heard in that quick phone call.

Urd was in trouble.

And Belldandy was back.

At least he thought it was Belldandy.

Racer's instinct, ten years removed, had the BMW four-door out of Sukuya Aerospace's parking lot in record time.

His wife's crisis was no mystery, he knew. It had been happening every so often for the last four years. It had tapered off recently, but once in awhile, prompted by some unconscious stimulus, her composure would break, and the hysterics would return just as they had that morning four years ago. The last time it was while they were in a Macy's and she had seen an infant-sized shirt she had bought for...

He put it out of his mind. The engineer wasn't quite over it himself.

_Belldandy..._

The mortal slammed his foot down on the accelerator.

888

"Here, Neesan, have some tea," Belldandy begged, holding the cup up to her sister's mouth. For the past fifteen minutes Urd has been unconsolable. Belldandy originally thought Megumi had kept the miscarriage as a secret to protect herself. Now she knew the girl was simply trying to keep Urd from having a breakdown.

She held her sister and rocked her gently in her arms, shushing her as she would a baby. The goddess couldn't imagine the kind of pain Urd must have endured. She knew of other goddesses who had complications in their pregnancies, resulting in the baby's death. The mothers had been so traumatized by feeling their children dying within them that it took years to get over it.

The chimes on the door rang, and she turned.

Keiichi stood there, not as she remembered him, but an older more mature man than the one she had said goodbye to yesterday.

"Keiichi san," she whispered with a smile.

The boy pointed at her, a fearfully angry look on his face. "Get away from her," he hissed.

The tone in the man's voice made her feel like she had been slapped across the face. Did he really hate her so much? Did he blame her for leaving?

"Keiichi san," she whispered, tears in her eyes.

"Get... away from her," he warned again.

Sadly, Belldandy complied, stepping out of the booth and moving away from her sister, who was still sobbing into the tabletop.

She expected him to run straight to his wife, the goddess who stayed, the goddess who carried his child, the goddess he _chose_.

Instead, his eyes tracked her warily. He swallowed and moved carefully, positioning himself between the goddesses, but his eyes never left her.

"What's your father's name?" he asked.

She blinked. "What?"

"His name!" he demanded in an angry growl.

He was scaring her. She wondered if perhaps he had become mentally unstable over the years.

"Vili," she answered quietly.

Keiichi looked over his shoulder at his wife, knowing that he needed to wrap this up. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Opening it, he removed a small, sealed envelope with a question written in Urd's handwriting across it.

"How many cousins?" he asked her.

Puzzled, Belldandy just answered him, hoping the purpose of this would be revealed through her words.

"Seven," she said.

He stared at her as he broke the seal on the envelope. Removing a small card inside, he looked down at it. His shoulders drooped in relief.

"Belldandy," he whispered.

He didn't spare any time after that. Whirling around, he rushed to the booth and embraced Urd. The goddess, sensing him, wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into his shoulder.

"It's okay," he whispered to her as he held her. "It's okay, angel."

888

Belldandy watched as Keiichi effortlessly picked her sister up and carried her outside. She followed close behind, watching as Keiichi opened the BMW's back door. He gently laid her inside, the goddess falling mercifully asleep.

He closed the door and stood up. Keiichi turned and found himself face-to-face with his ex.

They were both silent. Belldandy's eyes studied him, running over every inch of him as she tried to reconcile her most recent memories with the man who stood before her. He bit his lip and opened the passenger side door for her before walking around to the driver side.

She stepped inside and fastened her seatbelt as he entered and closed the door. Without a word, he put the car in gear and started down the street.

"I'm sorry about the test," he told her quietly, his words pulling her gaze back to him. "Trust me, it was necessary."

Belldandy looked behind her seat at the sleeping Norn that lay there. "Does this happen to her often?" she asked softly.

"It comes less frequently as time passes," he told her quietly, realizing his wife was asleep. He paused for a moment. "How much do you know?" he asked.

The goddess took a breath. "Megumi san told me... about her miscarriage," she confessed.

Keiichi made a turn before continuing. "Then you understand," he said simply.

Belldandy looked sadly down to her lap. "Hai," she whispered.

She looked up again as the car came to a stop in the temple's driveway. They both stepped out of the car, and she watched Keiichi carefully pull her sister from the car and carry her gingerly into the temple.

Following behind him, she watched him as he carried her into their bedroom and laid her on the futon. She stood in the hallway, ashamed of listening in but unable to break away.

Keiichi removed his wife's high-heels and pulled a blanket over her.

"Keiichi?" Urd whispered.

He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "It's me," he assured her. "It's okay."

She cleared her throat sheepishly. "I guess it happened again," she whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," he told her with a reassuring smile. "It's okay, angel."

Urd looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. "I love you, Keiichi," she whispered.

"I love you too," he replied as he wiped her tears away with his finger. "Get some sleep okay?"

He straightened and stepped quietly out of the room, closing the door behind him. Turning, his eyes widened as Belldandy launched herself at him, hugging him fiercely.

"Keiichi san!" she cried.

The mortal hugged her and took a long breath. "I'm so glad you're home."

Her grip on him tightened. "Are you?" she asked.

She felt him stiffen under her arms, and he slowly pulled away, walking toward the kitchen. "I've thought about what I'd say at this moment for seven years," he told her. "And I'm no closer to figuring it out now than I was the first time I laid awake at night and thought, 'What the hell do I tell Belldandy?'"

The goddess was silent. She hadn't meant to put him on the spot or make him defensive.

"All I ask," he went on pleadingly, "Is that you don't blame Urd for this. If you have to hate someone... hate me."

She shook her head. "I don't hate either of you," she told him. "I don't. I can't."

He walked into the kitchen, and she followed, not sure what he would do or say next. The man opened the cupboard and started removing vegetables. He placed them on a cutting board and started slicing a cabbage.

"How long have you been back?" he asked her, staring down at the board as he cut.

"Just since this morning," she answered, stepping closer to him. She rested a hand on his shoulder. "May I help?"

He nodded, and she stood next to him, cutting a radish. "Keiichi san, that test, those questions you asked... what was that about?"

"It's a long story," he sighed.

"Neesan will probably sleep for awhile," she told him.

He nodded. "Okay. It all started about two weeks after you disappeared..."

_Ten years ago..._

Urd turned as she heard her door open and close and blinked at the sight that met her. Keiichi, a thoroughly pissed off look on his face, stormed past her toward her armoire, grumbling as he went by.

"I'm not here!" he told her.

Climbing into the cabinet, he pull the door closed behind him. A moment later, someone knocked at her door. Rising from her workbench, the Norn opened her door and found the green-haired goddess who had been living with them for only two days standing there.

"Excuse me," she said quickly, obviously embarrassed by what she perceived as a failure on her part. "But I seem to have lost track of Keiichi sama. Have you seen him?"

888

"Keiichi san," Belldandy interrupted. "I don't mean to be rude, but Neesan has already gone over that part."

He blinked at her. "Oh... Okay, well... where did Urd leave off?"

_Eight years ago..._

Sayoko looked herself over in the mirror, the familiar blue and white dress clinging to her body as if it were made for her. Three others sat on the goddess's futon, cast aside for not being nearly as stylish as Sayoko had hoped.

_Belldandy and I must have similar measurements,_ she surmised. _Convenient..._

She posed and smiled wickedly. The young woman clasped her hands together and let her eyes go wide like a little lost lamb.

"My name is Belldandy," she said, imitating the absent goddess. "I like to show up at Japanese universities and steal people's rightful place as queen because... la-dee-da!"

She smiled gleefully and turned her head to the left. "Oh, Keiichi sama!" she cried in Belldandy's voice. "I would do _anything_ for you!" She puckered her lips and leaned toward the mirror, just barely catching movement in the corner of her eye.

The girl turned and found Keiichi standing in the doorway.

"Uh oh," Sayoko breathed.

She watched as he turned and started down the hall. Sayoko dashed to the door to try to explain... or at least come up with a _really_ good story... but when she looked down the hall, Keiichi was already gone and in his place stood Urd.

She didn't look very happy...

The goddess glared openly at the woman who had dared entered her sister's room and filched her clothing. Not only that, whatever she had been doing in there, it was enough to put an expression of anger on Keiichi's face so intense, Urd hadn't dared stop him in the hall to ask.

Her eyes narrowed at the woman.

888

Sayoko hit the ground near the top of the temple steps and spat dirt from her mouth. Looking up, she saw Urd slap the dust from her hands, formally cleaning her hands of Sayoko's problems. The goddess turned and started for the house.

Behind her, the mortal girl, defeated by her own callousness, rested her head in the dirt. Urd kept walking.

She figured Sayoko would wear out her welcome, but she didn't realize it would have been so soon. The girl just didn't know how to survive without an allowance and the presence of fawning sycophants. She couldn't even operate a simple washing machine.

"And you could?" the Peorth angel asked, appearing on her left shoulder. Urd paused mid-step. "You couldn't make toast. A _goddess_ had to come down here and teach you those things."

Devil Belldandy appeared on her right shoulder. "You can't kick her out now!" she cried, clutching her pitchfork. "She's still wearing my favorite dress! You have to at least get it back first! Ooh! Then kick her out naked! Insult to injury! That would be _hilarious!_"

Urd bit her lip. Angel Peorth crossed her arms over her chest. "What was it Sif said?" she asked the goddess. "That you could very well learn all of those things and be Keiichi's goddess if you weren't so self-absorbed?"

"Something like that," Urd allowed.

"She also said that she loves carnivals!" Devil Belldandy pointed out. "Which would be a great place to stick Sayoko so that she never bothers anyone every again! She could work in the freak show tent! Just glue a beard on her, and she's all set!"

"Er...."

Angel Peorth glared at her. "A goddess _helps_ people in _exactly_ her position," she pointed out. "Sif would help her. Belldandy would help her... _Keiichi_ would help her."

Urd growled. "Fine!" she hissed. "I'll help her, okay?!"

She turned, and the angel and devil disappeared. The goddess marched up to Sayoko, who was still lying on the ground, unsure of what she would do.

The goddess looked down at her and scowled. "Do you want to live here?" she asked straight out.

Sayoko looked up at her and nodded weakly.

"Then get up off your ass and come with me!" Urd ordered, reaching down to take the woman by the arm.

The mortal woman pulled away from her. "Get away from me!" she cried. "You don't give a damn about me!"

Urd poked her finger in Sayoko's face. "One hundred percent true!" she said. "But Keiichi _does_ care! And while I don't happen to think you're worth more than a pile of crap, you're going to be a mom! And the idea of your kid going hungry while you try to figure out how to open a can of tuna fish by yourself isn't one I relish! Now, come. With. ME!"

Sayoko climbed to her feet, and Urd looked her over. "Okay, I'm going to take you under my wing." She turned and muttered to herself. "The black one or the white one, I haven't decided yet."

"What?"

"Nothing!" She turned back to Sayoko and put her hand on her hips. "Now, the first thing you're going to do is go into Keiichi's room, get down on your knees in front of him and..."

"Oh, the hell I will!" Sayoko cried, recoiling in horror. "I may be down on my luck, but I'm not some hooker you can pimp out for..."

"...apologize," Urd finished in a mutter.

"Oh," Sayoko replied sheepishly.

Urd started for the temple, and Sayoko followed her. "I don't get it," Sayoko said. "Belldandy left how long ago? But you still have her room pristine. It's like a shrine."

"It almost is," Urd bit out. "Keiichi loves Belldandy. Three years later, he still loves her as much as he did the day she left. And you better not _ever_ forget it."

Sayoko nodded and followed Urd inside.

888

"It's okay, Sayoko san, really," Keiichi told her as he helped her to her feet. "Look, I saw you in Belldandy's room, in her clothes, pretending to be her, and I got a little pissed."

"It was very rude of me," Sayoko told him formally, as if reading from a script. "It was inappropriate."

"Yeah," Keiichi admitted. "On the other hand, since you only had the one dress, we probably should have helped with that, and Belldandy's clothes do fit you." He took a breath and smiled. "And knowing her, I doubt she would mind."

Sayoko eyed him critically. "Keiichi kun," she began, "I know it's none of my business, but... if she left, why are you treating it like she's dead?"

"We're just waiting for her to come back," Keiichi told her. "It just might take awhile."

The girl mulled on this. "Well, again, I'm sorry," she said. "I'll be more sensitive in the future."

Keiichi smiled. "Okay, Sayoko san."

She stepped out of his room and found Urd waiting for her.

"All right, Ko-chi san," she said with a shrug. "What next?"

"Get your shoes on," Urd told her. "We're going out."

"Where?"

"To get you a job."

888

Keiichi heard Urd and Sayoko leaving the house and looked down at the list again. He had printed out the NIT Department of Aerospace Studies internship offerings list and was trying to figure out which ones he should try first. There were at least twenty postings, and he was running out of time to choose one.

"Keiichi?"

He looked up and found Peorth standing in the doorway, smiling gently at him.

"Hey," he greeted, turning back to the list. "Come in."

The French goddess walked in and knelt next to where he sat, watching him pore over the list for the seventh time. She studied his face and found no sign of the welts she had seen last night. Urd must have healed them for him, robbing her of her chance to perform a Florence Nightingale with him.

Perhaps she could help in some other way...

"What are you reading?" she asked.

"Hmm?" he asked, thoroughly distracted. "Oh!" He put the list down. "I need to find an internship this week or I have to wait until the next semester," he told her. "But I'm not sure which one to take."

She took the list and read over them. "You can choose any of these?"

"I can _apply_ for any of them," he corrected. "I have to be _accepted_ for one before Friday."

"I see your dilemma," she told him. She smiled brightly. "Perhaps I can help!"

"Oh yeah?" he asked, skeptically. "You can tell me which of these will accept me so I don't have to go apply to every one of them?"

"Oui," she told him, placing the list on the desk in front of him. "But you must trust me. Do you trust me, Keiichi?"

He gave it much more thought than she hoped he would. Finally, he gave her a nod. "Sure," he said. "I trust you."

"Bon," she said quietly. She took his face in her hands and turned his head toward her. "Face me."

Keiichi, waited, unsure where this was going to go. What he didn't expect was for Peorth to move in, seal her lips against his and kiss him thoroughly.

His eyes widened and he felt the goddess's tongue moving in his mouth and felt her breathe in, taking in the air from his lungs.

She gently broke the kiss and leaned over the paper, blowing a held breath over the paper. A golden fog left her lips, coalescing into a million sparkling particles that floated down onto the paper.

Keiichi watched, still stunned, as she picked up the list and shook it, golden particles falling from the paper like pencil shavings. She read the list and smiled as she showed it to him. One entry glowed a dim yellow, as if someone had written it in glue and the shining particles were now sticking to it like glitter on a kid's crafts project.

"This one," she said, handing it to him.

He sat there, unable to move.

Peorth blinked and shook her hand in front of his eyes. "Keiichi?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

He shook his head and coughed, his face turning a bright red. Peorth smiled slyly and feigned distress. "Oh! Desole! I should have warned you about that."

"It's okay," he squeaked, prompting another grin from the goddess.

She cocked her head to the side and studied him. "Has no woman ever kissed you like that before? I assumed you and Belldandy..."

He cleared his throat. "Not... Not like _that_," he explained.

"Desole," she apologized again. "I did not mean to be your first in such a thing."

_But I am,_ she finished silently to herself with just a touch of glee.

Desperate to change the subject, he looked at the list. "Sukuya Aerospace," he read. "Okay, let's give it a shot."

888

Walking down the street, Urd suddenly froze, the hair on the back of her neck going straight up.

Sayoko saw her companion tense and blinked. "What? Are you all right?"

Urd's eyes were wide with utter rage. "I don't know," she said. "Just... suddenly... so... so... _pissed_... right... now..."

The mortal girl arched a concerned eyebrow and stepped away. "I apologized, all right!"

Urd took a breath. "Not you," she said. "Forget it, come on. We're almost there."

"Where are we going, anyway?" Sayoko asked her. "If we're looking for a job, shouldn't we get a copy of the want-ads? Besides, I told you, no one is going to hire an executive who's going to quit in eight months."

"You're not getting a job as an executive," Urd told her. "You're getting a minimum-wage, part time job."

"You mean like... waitressing?" Sayoko asked in utter horror. "Forget it! I'd rather live in a cardboard box!"

"That's the option," Urd said. "Look, you're a spoiled little rich girl suddenly thrust into a life you know nothing about. I'm sure you could nail the exact year of a wine just by tasting it, and I'm sure that impresses people in the social circles you _used_ to live in, but you have no idea how to survive as a working-class schlub," the goddess told her. "And I hate to break this to you, but you're poor now."

"That still doesn't mean I should compromise my principles," Sayoko retorted.

"Not wanting to bus tables isn't a principle," Urd pointed out. "It's just you being a bitch."

Sayoko growled.

"You get a part-time job," Urd explained her thinking. "You're not paying rent, you're not paying for food. You save the money you make until you find a better job or your dad forgives you and asks for you to come home or you win the lottery. It's not the best money, but if it pays for diapers, that's all that matters. It sure beats the hell out of living in a refrigerator box, licking the inside of cat food cans for nourishment."

The mortal girl sighed, unable to fight the logic. "So where are we going?"

Urd stopped outside a familiar building and smiled. "We're already here."

888

Teletha smiled as Urd and Sayoko stepped into her office.

"Urd!" she cried happily. "How is it you always show up right when I'm about to call you?"

"Just lucky, I guess," Urd told her, sitting down across the desk from her.

"Who's your friend?" Teletha asked, rising from her seat to get them some tea.

"This is Sayoko Mishima," Urd told her. "Sayoko, this is Teletha Tessatarossa, CEO of Whispers."

"A pleasure," Sayoko told her.

Teletha returned with a tray laden with cups of tea. "That name is familiar," she said. "Any relation to Kane Mishima, president of Nergal Heavy Industries?"

A pained look crossed Sayoko's face. "No," she whispered. "No relation."

Urd took pity on the girl and got to the point. "Sayoko needs a job, Teletha."

The CEO looked sheepish. "I'm sorry, Urd," she said. "But with the economy the way it is, we're really not hiring just now."

"She's going to be a single mom, Teletha," Urd went on. "She needs a job."

"Do you recommend her?" Teletha asked Urd pointedly.

Sayoko's jaw nearly hit the floor when Urd replied. "Not really, no."

Teletha blinked at her. Sayoko looked like she just got punched in the stomach.

"You don't?" the white-haired girl asked.

Urd shrugged. "Look, Teletha, you're my friend, so I'm not going to sell you a load of garbage here. I fully expect her to be abrasive and need twice as long to train as any two other applicants." She took a breath. "But she needs an opportunity, and until someone offers her one, she's never going to improve her lot in life. So I'm asking you to please give her an opportunity."

Teletha sat there with watering eyes. "We're _friends?_" she asked in a jubilant whisper.

"Um... yes?" Urd replied.

"I'm so moved," Teletha sniffled, wiping a tear away. She turned, regarding Sayoko with interest. "Tell me, Mishima san," she said. "What's your past employment experience like?"

Sayoko cleared her throat and folded her hands in her lap. "Well, I have a degree from NIT, of course," she started. "And I was the Special Coordinator for Overseas Development and Infrastructure Realignment at Nergal Heavy Industries for one year..."

Teletha smiled. "Oh, honey, just stop," she said. "I was raised in that world too. You and I both know that title doesn't mean you really _did_ anything."

Miffed and a little embarrassed (mostly because Teletha was quite correct), Sayoko was silent.

The CEO looked at her sympathetically. "However, we at Whispers are sympathetic to the many plights of women," she said. "What's your degree in?"

"Electronics engineering systems," Sayoko told her.

"Can I assume that to mean that you can add and subtract?"

Sayoko sighed, once again realizing that all the money and influence she _once_ had meant nothing. "Yes."

"Good!" Teletha cried with a clap of her hands. "Then you can start as a payroll clerk downstairs. It's on the third floor. Just ask for Maya. I'll call down and let her know you're coming."

"Thanks, Teletha," Urd said.

"It's no problem!" She saw Urd and Sayoko stand and raised a hand. "Oh, before you go, I did need to speak with you."

"Okay, shoot," Urd said, retaking her seat.

"I have a shoot for you Thursday," Teletha told her. "Swimsuits, so you'll meet Simone at the indoor waterpark." She pulled a packet of tickets from her desk drawer and handed them to her. "Bring your friends."

"Okay, sounds good," Urd said.

"And how was your weekend at the hospital?" Teletha asked.

"It was fun," Urd told her. "I actually liked working with those kids."

"Great! Did you get any pictures of yourself with them?"

Urd paused. "Um... no... Was I supposed to?"

"Don't worry about it," Teletha said with a wave. "You can get pictures when you go next weekend."

"Next weekend?"

"Yes!" Teletha cried. "This is going to be your 'thing!'"

"My 'thing?'" Urd asked, vaguely alarmed. "I don't get weekends anymore!?"

Teletha blinked. "Unless you have a second job," the CEO noted, "You only work maybe one or two days a week to begin with."

"Those other days I'm... writing my memoirs!" Urd defended.

"It's your thing now," Teletha said.

"But why?! I mean, I like those kids, but..."

"Paperwork!" Teletha replied.

Urd didn't reply right away. Her eyebrow twitched. "Paperwork?"

"Paperwork."

"Look, if you don't want to tell me, just say so," Urd argued.

Teletha smiled. "Paperwork."

888

Keiichi brought the Beemer to a halt and waited for Peorth to climb off the bike behind him before dismounting. He looked up at an ancient-looking, dilapidated hangar, the white paint peeling from the wood where it was applied at least fifty years ago. The words "Sukuya Aerospace" was written in Japanese over the mammoth hangar doors while what he assumed were the same words were written in Cyrillic just below them.

"It's quaint," Peorth noted helpfully. Punctuating her words, the last letter in "Sukuya" fell from the sign and crashed into the concrete below.

"Okay, be honest," Keiichi told her. "Seriously, I won't be mad. Was that kiss-spell-thing legit or was it just an excuse to put your tongue in my mouth?"

"I'm afraid it was a real spell, Keiichi," Peorth told him sheepishly. "A Kiss of Destiny. No matter what you do, you're meant to be here."

He took a deep breath. "Hmm," he replied with a nod. "Okay, screw it." He started for the hangar doors.

"Would you like me to come with you?" Peorth called to him.

"Probably safer out here," he called over his shoulder. "Besides, if the hangar collapses while I'm inside, I need you to call nine-one-one."

"Oui," she said, offering him a wave. "Good luck!"

He sighed as he found the main office just inside the hangar doors on the left. It looked like a shack made of corrugated steel left over from when they first built the hangar. The door was open, but he couldn't see anyone inside. He raised a fist and rapped against the doorframe.

"Hello?" he called.

He heard the sound of wheels and arched an eyebrow as a balding, bearded man with an untucked blue shirt and a white labcoat coasted past his sight in a wheeled desk chair and out of sight again.

"Chyort voz'mi!" Keiichi heard the man growl. A moment later, the patter of footsteps as the man maneuvered her chair back into view. He regarded Keiichi carefully for several moments.

"Are you here from Lockheed?" the man asked in heavily accented Japanese.

"No?" Keiichi replied carefully. "I'm looking for Sukuya Aerospace. I'm here to apply for the internship."

"So!" the man declared, struggling to his feet. He leaned against a desk until he found a simple wooden cane, the head of which resembled a jet's control stick. "You have come to apply to apprentice with the great Mischa Anatoly Novikov, eh?"

Keiichi looked from side to side and paused. "Um... yes?"

"Good!" the man boomed. "This pleases me!" His cane clacked against the concrete floor as he approached Keiichi. "What is your name?"

"Keiichi Morisato," Keiichi told him. "I'm an aeronautical engineering student at NIT."

"NIT!" the man cried. "An abysmal institution that creates mundane, bourgeois and unimaginative children playing with paper airplanes! BAH!" He grabbed his own crotch. "An aeronautical engineer needs BALLS! Do you have balls, Kay-chi Morysawtoe?"

"Like cantelopes!" Keiichi shot back. "I fly a sixty year old experimental interceptor for chump change! What do you do?!"

Mischa puffed up like a provoked cobra. "Me?! I fly MiG 23 in Afghanistan! Sixty-eight sorties!"

"Uh huh," Keiichi said with a nod. "Fighters, huh? And... uh... what kind of fighters did the Afghans have again?"

Mischa bit his lip in rage and started to nod. "You have balls," he said. "I _like_ balls!"

"Yeah, I figured that about you," Keiichi bit out.

The Russian glared at him for several moments...

Then laughed.

"You have _balls_, Kay-chi Morysawtoe!" he cried, slapping the boy on the back. "Come! I show you project!"

Still unsure of exactly what was happening, Keiichi allowed himself to be led.

"You say you fly old plane?" Mischa asked. "Not jet?"

Keiichi sighed. "No, not a jet. A Shinden. Experimental model from 1945."

"Good! Wonderful!" Mischa cried. "This pleases me!" He brought Keiichi to a drafting table displaying an aircraft blueprint.

Keiichi looked at it and blinked in puzzlement. "A prop-driven fighter?" he asked.

"Not fighter," Mischa corrected. "Attacker! Ground attack! For new Iraqi government! They cannot afford high-tech jets! They just need something for... how you say... close air support!" He slapped the blueprint. "The Akilina!"

The demo pilot looked over the prints. It was surprisingly simplistic and beautiful at the same time. A single turbo-prop engine supporting a heavily armed and armored frame.

"She will carry two Hellfire missiles and fifty caliber machine gun," Mischa said. "Against tank, okay-okay. But more than enough for filthy Taliban marching in snow with bags on their feet."

Keiichi was enthralled with the plans he was reading. It was nothing at all fancy, it was a work-horse, and he liked a workhorse. The modern avionics make told him that it was like the Shinden, a descendent of the warbirds rather than an imitation.

"You start tomorrow!" Mischa told him.

"Sure," Keiichi muttered, holding out the forms for Mischa to sign. The Russian signed them and handed them back.

888

"Funny," Keiichi said as he crested the top of the ladder and stepped onto the roof. "Usually, _you_ find _me_ here."

Urd looked back at him and held up a bottle of sake. "Join me?"

He sat down next to her and looked up at the stars. It was becoming a familiar ritual between the two of them. Any time one of them had something on their mind, the roof was the place to go to think about it and get wasted.

The young man grabbed the bottle and took a drink from it. He passed it back to her. "So what's on your mind?" he asked. "You got Sayoko a job, right? Sounds like everything worked out."

"I was thinking about what you said earlier," she said. "About unwanted pregnancies."

"Yeah," he said uncomfortably, not looking forward to talking about this again.

"Remember how you asked about it and I said it was open to debate?"

He nodded, willing to wait for her to release what she'd been holding back. Urd was typically a mystery, always holding back what was bothering her until whatever it was exploded out of her.

"Yeah," he said. "You said a goddess can't get pregnant unless she wants to."

She nodded and took another swig from the bottle. "It's kind of odd," she said. "I was looking up what you were talking about on the internet after I got back from Whispers. You know what struck me about how controversial it is in this realm?" He shook his head, and she went on. "The fathers in Heaven don't get a choice either."

He blinked. "Urd... what are you saying?"

The goddess looked at him then down at her feet as she nervously tapped the side of the sake bottle. It was obvious she was just a little tipsy and so a little more talkative than usual. "You've never asked, Keiichi," she began, "How Belldandy, Skuld and I became sisters."

Keiichi said nothing, once again waiting for Urd to work it out for herself.

"Our father had a fling with Hild," Urd told him. "He was sort of an ambassador to the court in the Demon Realm. After he met Frigga and fell in love with her, he went to Hild to break it off. She convinced him to give her one more night... just to say goodbye."

The mortal worked it out, feeling embarrassed for the goddess whose very creation had plunged her unwittingly into family drama.

"She conceived," Keiichi finished quietly. "Deliberately."

Urd took another pull from the bottle. "Hild has a dual nature," she told him. "On one hand, I'm sure she really meant it when she said she wanted a piece of him she could love forever." She paused. "On the other, I know it was a swipe at him and Frigga. One last spiteful gesture to them. I know that's how my father saw it."

Keiichi looked down at his lap, knowing instinctively what Urd was thinking before she said it.

"I _was_ an unwanted pregnancy," she said. "And my father made it obvious every time we spoke."

He looked up at the sky and thought on this. "You know," he whispered. "Just today, I had a brush with destiny," he told her. "And I know... after everything that's happened, there are things I've been put here to do." He looked over at her. "And so are you."

She turned, her eyes meeting his.

"The Almighty didn't put you in this universe for your father," Keiichi told her quietly. "Maybe he put you here for something else. Maybe he put you here for me," he finished in a whisper. "Without you here, I'm not sure what things would be like, but I doubt things would be for the better."

He turned to her. "So... honestly... I don't give a damn how your father felt about it or why Hild did it. It doesn't matter. Because you're here now, and I'm thankful for it."

Urd swallowed back tears. "How the hell do you do that?" she asked.

"Do what?"

"Know what to say," she elaborated.

He looked out over the city lights of Nekomi and shrugged. "Maybe that's just what I'm here to do."


	20. Conspiracies

Disclaimer: AMG and FMP aren't mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 20**

**Conspiracies**

The knife in Belldandy's hand froze as the details of Keiichi's conversation with her sister on the rooftop arranged themselves in her mind and formed the basis for a conclusion that troubled her with its finality. It stared her in the face, even as she quietly looked for a way to deny it. Of all the realizations she had come to in the last twelve hours, this one, believe it or not, truly rocked her to her very core.

"You were in love with her," she whispered.

The knife Keiichi was using to slice a radish stopped moving, just for a moment. He started cutting again. "I don't know," he told her quietly. "I don't know exactly when it happened. I know... that I wouldn't admit it for a long time." He put the knife down and leaned against the counter.

He looked up and found the positively devastated look on Belldandy's face. A part of her hadn't wanted to admit it. It was easy for her, after all, to believe that Urd had fallen in love with Keiichi. He was Keiichi san. She had always found it a little odd that more women weren't in love with him, though she was willing to admit that thought was biased.

But to face the fact that Keiichi had fallen in love with her sister, despite everything she had already heard, was a lot to bear. A part of her had wanted to believe that Keiichi had married Urd kicking and screaming, unwilling to face Belldandy's loss except as a last resort. Now...

"Do you remember," Keiichi began quietly, "...when you told me that you had made a choice, a conscious choice, to believe everything I said?"

She nodded sadly.

"I don't know when," he went on. "But at some point I had made the same decision in regards to Urd. "What I didn't know was that I had thrown fuel on the fire."

"What do you mean?" Belldandy inquired.

He wiped his hands on a dishrag and faced her again. "All that stuff I told her about fate," he explained. "I didn't know about what Desdemona had told her already. I think, at that point, acknowledging Destiny's role in our lives cast the die. She was my best friend, and I trusted her more than anyone."

_Seven years ago..._

"Okay, now kick!"

Holding onto Urd's forearms, Keiichi kicked off from the pool's floor and kicked his feet. The goddess stood still while the mortal got the hang of it. The boy sputtered as water hit his face and he kicked theatrically. Glancing up for a moment, he was treated to a close-up view of the black bikini top she was wearing. Distracted, an errant wave hit him full in the face.

"Alright... and... GO!" Urd cried, stepping to the side, letting Keiichi dog paddle past her.

He still couldn't believe he had let Urd talk him into this. True, it was the biggest water park in southern Japan, and true, Teletha had gone through a great deal of trouble to reserve an entire wing of it for the Aeronautics Club's annual summer party, but that didn't mean it was wrong to just sit on the artificial beach, sip a boat drink and watch the girls go by. He didn't _have_ to swim...

But with a pointed finger and a grab of his wrist, Urd had made a compelling point about how she was sick of going to places like this and watching him sit there for hours, so he had allowed himself to be dragged into the "lagoon" where she was now taking up teaching him the swimming lessons he had at one time started with Belldandy.

For a fearful moment, he thought he would sink, but a minute later his arms and legs found a working rhythm and he found himself being propelled slowly through the water.

"See?!" Urd called to him. "Was that so hard?!"

Keiichi kept it up for a few more minutes, long enough for his tired limbs to bring him to one of the little wooden islands dotting the lagoon. Taking a breath, he climbed up and sat on the bench that ringed the little spit of sand and its single artificial palm tree.

A moment later, his goddess companion emerged from the water in front of him with a gasp, tossing her wet hair back. She grabbed the bench next to him and pulled herself up.

"There," he said. "I swam."

"Yeah," she relented. "But you looked like an idiot. Sorry, Keiichi, but you're gonna have to simply move onto a stroke that doesn't make you look like a twenty-four-year-old man pretending to be a labrador retriever."

"Yeah, you see, it's negative reinforcement like that that made me not want to be a racer anymore," Keiichi told her darkly.

She grinned. "Awww! Would you like something more positive? How about a biscuit, there, Rover?"

He reached out and pushed her back into the water with a grin. She cried out as she hit the water and swam to the surface. She rested her arms on the bench and treaded water. "Little sensitive there, aren't we, Sparky?"

Before he could respond, something moving on the highest diving board caught his eye. "Hey," he said. "Check out Teletha."

Urd turned and looked up. On the other side of the lagoon, the lingerie CEO stood on the high dive, raised her hands over her head and did a perfect triple somersault before slipping into the water.

"Wow," Keiichi breathed.

"Yeah," Urd agreed. "She was on her school's diving team in college."

"That was pretty cool," Keiichi noted in awe. "I wonder if she could teach me to do that."

The tricksy, scheming part of Urd's mind, the part that enjoyed a good plot, went immediately into action, and within ten seconds had produced a scenario where Keiichi and Teletha hooked up. It made sense in a weird kind of way. Teletha was a self-made, successful woman with a hole left in her heart from the departure of her chief of security, whom she had a crush on. She was beautiful, rich and had a gentle heart not unlike Belldandy's. Keiichi was a schlub clawing his way up the ladder, but doing it with integrity and heart, a noble young man also grieving after the unexpected loss of a loved one. If hooking him up with Kiyoshi Takeda made sense, it made no less sense to put him together with Teletha Tessatarossa. As a matter of fact, if she thought hard enough, she could see the two of them in a photograph, hugging, smiling and flashing a stupid "V" sign.

Urd crushed this thought under a mental boot and rubbed it out like a cigarette. She didn't even give a thought to why she didn't like what her scheming mind knew for certain was a brilliant idea, she just tossed it aside.

Instead, she grinned and grabbed his arm. "Hell, Keiichi, you don't need her to teach you how to fall in the water! I can do that just fine!" She pulled his arm, and with a cry of alarm, the pilot fell into the water next to her, surfacing a moment later only after a good deal of panicked effort.

He coughed as he grabbed hold of the bench and treaded water. "Not funny," he bit out.

"Depends on your point of view," Urd corrected him with a wink. "From here, it was simply hilarious."

"You know how many people drown every year from horseplay in the pool?" he asked as he struggled back onto the bench. "A trillion! Every year! One trillion people die in pool accidents."

"Sounds fishy to me," she noted. She watched him catch his breath and cocked her head. "How is it you never learned how to swim, anyway?"

He shrugged. "Too cold in Hokkaido," he said, looking away.

"Bullshit," she replied instantly. "Megumi can swim just fine. So what is it?"

"Well, in that case, I don't want to talk about it," Keiichi snapped.

Another woman would have felt uncomfortable by the tone and the conversation would have ended right there. Urd was not just another woman. "Come on," she pleaded. "Now I'm curious, and you _know_ I'm not going to let it go now."

"It's none of your business."

"Come on!" she repeated. "I'll tell you one of my deep, dark secrets in exchange."

"I'm just afraid of the water," he said, hoping that would be the end of it.

"Afraid of the water?" she asked. "What's to be afraid of? It's just water. It's not like it's..." She shuddered. "...clowns..."

He arched an eyebrow. "Clowns?"

Urd held herself and shivered again. "Damn... creepy... ungodly things..."

Keiichi sighed. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"Do I ever?" she asked.

He bit his lip and tapped the bench with his fingers. "Fine, okay, here it is. When I was little, I had an accident. I fell through the ice in a frozen lake, and when I came up again, I was stuck under the ice."

"That must have been scary," Urd commented. "So how did you get out?"

Keiichi shivered in the presence of bad memories. "I didn't."

888

"Excuse me, ladies."

Sayoko looked up from her beach towel at the tall, well-muscled man looking down at them with the Hollywood smile.

"Bonjour," Peorth returned, checking the guy out over her sunglasses.

"I was wondering if I could get you ladies a drink?" he asked, the light reflecting off his smile threatening to blind them.

"Bon!" Peorth said dismissively. "Bring me a daquiri, hot stuff."

The man smiled and leveled his gaze at Sayoko.

"Oh," Sayoko said, just a little disappointed. "Nothing for me. I'm... I'm pregnant and..."

"Oh," the guy said, suddenly uncomfortable. "Okay, sorry..."

"Oh, it's okay!" Sayoko quickly argued.

"So," the man said with a clap of his hands. "A daquiri and... um... juice?"

"Yeah," Sayoko said with a sigh. The guy walked off, leaving the two alone.

Peorth watched Sayoko deflate and removed her sunglasses. "What's wrong?" she asked. "We're getting free drinks, and he's nice to look at."

"It just occurred to me," Sayoko told her. "That no guy like that is ever going to pick me up again."

"Oh?" the goddess asked inquisitively. "Why not?"

The woman growled under her breath. "Because I used to have things men want," she explained as if to a child. "Now I have things they _don't_ want," she continued, patting her stomach.

Peorth shrugged and put her sunglasses back on. "Considering the events of your recent past, do you really _want_ a guy like that?" Sayoko blinked at her. "I mean, honestly, after you have a child, do you really want to bring home a guy you don't know and met in a bar after he bought you booze?"

Sayoko thought carefully on this.

Before the goddess could say more, she straightened her seat, having caught sight of Urd and Keiichi talking out in the lagoon. Chewing the inside of her cheek in thought, she rose from her towel and started for the water.

888

"What do you mean?" Urd asked, puzzled by the cryptic response.

"I didn't get out," Keiichi reiterated. "I beat against the ice for a minute then blacked out. When I woke up, there were a couple of paramedics and my parents kneeling over me." He paused for a minute and shrugged, more from having nothing else to do. "Talking about it later, I found out that they didn't find me for almost ten minutes. The freezing water... There's a word for it, but I forget it... It kind of preserved me until they found me after I... um..."

Urd waited. "After you..."

The boy looked uncomfortable. "Died," he finished.

"'Died?!'" Urd repeated incredulously.

"That's what my dad said," Keiichi told her. "Hypothermia and drowning. The paramedics revived me, but I was legally dead for eight minutes."

The goddess was silent. "So... you're afraid of water because it killed you?"

He nodded for a few moments. "That seems perfectly reasonable to me."

Urd winced. "Yeah, hard to argue, I guess." She thought for a moment and shrugged. "Then again, the best way to stop being afraid of something is to do it."

"Well," he replied with a sigh. "Can't I just be afraid of sitting on a beach in the Carribean surrounded by supermodels?"

She smiled and climbed up onto the bench. "Well, it's not the Carribean, and I wouldn't say you're surrounded, but I can provide _one_ supermodel..."

Keiichi looked at her, abruptly aware that the conversation had just turned into a new and uncomfortable direction. There was something about the way Urd was looking at him. She had flirted with him before, it was her nature, but there was something different in her eyes this time.

As it happens, it was Peorth that suddenly saved him. The brunette was swimming toward them and stopped to wave.

"Keiichi!" she called. "Come out and swim with me! We can swim doggie style!"

The boy suddenly turned red.

"Dibs!" Urd suddenly cried. "I call dibs! I want to be the one to tell her!"

"No, you can't," he told her. "It would humiliate her!"

"That's why I want to do it!"

Keiichi sighed and hopped into the water, paddling toward the French goddess.

Urd watched him go, quietly relieved. She was well aware she had gone a little too far with that last one. Turning, she dived into the water and swam for shore.

When she reached the beach, she found Sayoko speaking with Teletha. The CEO was smiling and gave the other woman a hug, walking away just as Urd walked up.

"What's going on?" Urd asked.

Sayoko turned to her with the brightest smile Urd had seen on her face in weeks. "Teletha says I'm off probation status! I'm getting a raise! Twenty more yen an hour!"

"That's great!" Urd replied, fully aware that two months ago Sayoko would have put that raise in a meter after parking her lamborghini outside a French restaurant.

That thought seemed to fall over the girl as well. She suddenly deflated. "Why am I so excited by that?"

"Because it's something you accomplished on your own?" Urd suggested. "And don't you get benefits now too?"

Sayoko shrugged. "I suppose," she said, turning away and starting for her towel.

"That's what you should really be happy about," Urd told her with a hint of disapproval. "Teletha has one of the best medical packages for women in Japan. That stuff about sympathizing with the plights of women isn't just a slogan for her. It's a core value. It comes from founding and running a business in a man's country. You should be ecstatic."

Sayoko sat down and laid back on her towel. "Oh, I am, I am," Sayoko told her in a bored voice. She put her sunglasses on and resumed sunbathing.

Urd's eyebrow twitched.

888

"Hey."

They both looked up and found Urd standing in the kitchen doorway, looking incredibly embarrassed. "Did I miss anything?" she asked.

Keiichi smiled. "I was just catching Belldandy up on stuff."

"Well, there certainly is enough of it," Urd noted as she sat down at the table. "I'm... sorry," she said sheepishly. "I guess I must have scared you." She looked up at Belldandy. "It's a... It's a long story..."

"I know," Belldandy told her with a gentle smile. "You don't have to tell it now."

Urd looked up as Keiichi put a cup of tea in front of her. "Lipton," he announced.

She smiled and sipped the beverage. Belldandy sat down to her left while Keiichi took a seat to her right. She lowered the tea cup and took note of the silence.

"Well," she said quietly. "Isn't this awkward?"

"It's... not how I imagined our evening meal," Belldandy admitted.

Keiichi stood up again and checked on the soup he was making. Urd slapped a smile on her face.

"Just like old times!" she declared weakly.

"No, Neesan," Belldandy corrected. "It's really not."

"I guess not," Urd relented as Keiichi returned and put a steaming bowl of soup in front of her. "I'm really not hungry, Keiichi."

"Eat," he told her gently, but firmly.

The older goddess relented and stirred the soup with her spoon. "So, what were you talking about?" she asked.

"Keiichi san was telling me about the party at the water park," Belldandy answered, spooning up some of her own soup.

"Ah," Urd said with a knowing smile. She turned to Keiichi and cocked her head. "The beginning of the great conspiracy."

"Not quite," Keiichi told her with a smile of his own. "That was the next day while you were out on your shoot."

_Seven years ago..._

Jiroo ran through the center of the hangar as Teletha's limo pulled up to the outer doors. "Money's coming! Everyone look busy!"

No one reacted, all of them knowing Teletha and her expectations as well as Jiroo and his tendency to over-react to things. As such, they all continued what they were doing even as Jiroo started windexing the Shinden's canopy with far more energy than was required.

Teletha moved through the hangar until she found the person she was looking for. "Ah! Keiichi san!" She ran up to the pilot as quickly as her patent leather heels would let her and found the young man working on one of the club's Cessnas.

"Hey, Teletha," he said in greeting. "If you're looking for Urd, she's at a shoot toda..."

He broke off as the woman leapt up and hugged him. "I'm so excited!" she cried.

Keiichi, well aware of the eyes of the other Aeronautics Club members locking in on him, nervously patted the woman on the back. "Um... that's... good?"

The CEO released him and took his hands in her own. "You won't believe it! All that work paid off! Urd is going to receive... an Undie!"

The boy paused, unsure where to even begin. "As opposed to an Overy?"

"The East Asia Undie Awards recognize lingerie models in the eastern hemisphere!" Teletha informed him excitedly. "I put Urd in for best new model, and she won!"

"Really?!" Keiichi asked in growing excitement on behalf of his friend. "That's great!"

The woman nodded sagely. "It took some prodding to get the necessary bullets for her package, the volunteer work and such. And it was incredibly difficult to do it without her knowing what was going on, but it was all worth it!"

"Does she know yet?" Keiichi asked.

Teletha shook her head. "Not yet. I'm going to tell her at the end of her shoot today, and I want you to be there."

"Yeah, sure," Keiichi agreed. "Thanks for letting me know."

"This is so exciting," Teletha declared as she started to walk away. "An Undie! Who would have thought!"

"So... this is a big deal, right?" Keiichi asked, wanting to be sure.

Teletha raised a scholarly finger and made her point. "It means, good Keiichi Morisato, that more people in the eastern part of the world want to see your girlfriend in skimpy outfits than any other woman in Asia."

With that, the woman walked off.

"That's... good?" Keiichi wondered.

888

"Good shoot today, Urd," Simone told her as she packed her camera away in its case. Urd stretched, working the kinks out of her muscles as she stepped off the set. She offered a smile to the Belgian woman. She liked Simone. The photographer had a way of bringing out exactly what Urd needed to express in a shoot.

Before she could thank her for the comment, the door opened, and Teletha, followed by a few other people and Keiichi entered the studio. Teletha smiled brightly and clapped her hands together a few times.

"Everyone!" she called. "Everyone! If I could have your attention, please!" She waited for a few moments to make sure all five people in the room were looking at her. "Now," she went on, "I have a very special announcement." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, savoring the suspense she was nurturing. "Urd... come up here. Come on."

Puzzled, Urd stepped forward until she was standing next to the CEO.

"Urd," Teletha began with a deep breath. "You are receiving one of the Undies." She giggled and clapped excitedly. The rest of the group clapped along with her.

"Oh," Urd replied. "Well... I appreciate that, Teletha, but you don't have to. I have a pair right here." She reached into her purse and pulled out a violet thong.

"Oh, no! No! No!" Teletha told her. "One of the Eastern Hemisphere Lingerie Association of the Eastern Hemisphere's Lingerie Industry Awards! An Undie!"

Keiichi raised a finger. "Why do you have underwear in your purse?"

"I'm like a Boy Scout of panties," she told him with a wink. "I'm always prepared."

"Prepared for what?" Keiichi asked, a little perturbed.

"Hush!" Teletha hissed at both of them. She smiled again. "You'll receive your award at the annual Undies banquet next month."

"Wow, a banquet too?" Urd asked. "I thought I'd just get it in the mail or something..."

"Oh, no! No! No!" Teletha cried. "Urd, this is a very big deal in the lingerie world! Only three people every year get one of these!" She took Urd by the shoulders. "You've done great things since being here, and we are all very proud of you!"

Urd was silent, unsure of what to say. "O...Oh, yeah?" she asked.

"Hai!" She hugged the Norn. "Well done, Urd!"

The others clapped again, and Teletha turned to them. "Very well, then! Back to work!"

The small crowd disbanded, leaving Keiichi and Urd alone. The pilot saw an almost disturbed look on the goddess's face and reached out, touching her elbow. "Hey," he said quietly. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she whispered. She switched to a smile. "It's... It's just weird."

"Weird?"

"Yeah," she said. "I mean... I've never gotten an award before..."

"Really?" he asked. "I mean... not even in school?"

She shrugged. "No. It's... It's odd..." The goddess paused. "You know... I've spent my whole life hearing other goddesses whisper, 'did you hear what Urd did?' behind my back." She smiled. "All of a sudden, people are saying it to my face and it's a good thing."

He smiled and gave her a hug. "You deserve it, Urd. I'm happy for you."

"Come on," she said, practically on cloud nine. "Let's go get a drink!"

888

Megumi was tossing some diced onions into her wok when Keiichi walked into her kitchen.

"Hey, Kei chan," she said absently. "Making stir-fry. You wanna stay for dinner?"

"No, I'm going to eat with the family," he said with a smile. "Besides, I wouldn't want to intrude on you and Toshio."

"Yeah," she drawled out. "He said he wants to talk. That's not a good sign."

"Everything okay?" he asked in concern.

"I _thought_ everything was great," she told him, confused. "Maybe not." she shrugged. "So," she said, eager to change the subject. "What brings you out here if it's not my cooking?"

"I need some advice," he said.

"Okay, shoot," she invited, throwing some peppers into the wok and listening to them sizzle.

"Urd's getting this big award for being Japan's top model or something," he told her.

"Awesome!" she cried.

"Yeah, and, well, it's a big deal for her, you know?" he said. "She's never won anything before, and I want to get her something... a gift or flowers or something, but I'm not sure... Maybe... like a gift card..."

She gave him a "you big dummy" look. "That's great, Kei chan," she said. "Nothing says 'great job,' like a five hundred yen gift certificate to Old Navy."

"Well, that's why I came to you!" Keiichi cried. "Come on. What should I do?"

"How are they giving her the award?" she asked.

"There's a banquet," he said. "One month from now. In Tokyo."

She grinned at him.

"What?" he demanded nervously.

"Kei chan, this one is _easy_."

"What do you mean?"

"You don't have to _get_ her anything," she explained. "It's going to be the night of her life. All you have to do is make sure that she has an incredible time!"

"And how do I do that?"

"Well, does she have a date yet?"

"No," he said. "She's not bringing one. It's... complicated."

"Oh, she's bringing a date all right," Megumi told him. "You're going to take her to that banquet. You're going to wear your bitching new suit, get her flowers, buy her dinner, rent a limo, the works. The best gift you can give her is the night of her life."

He cleared his throat, and that familiar uncertainty re-entered his voice. "Yeah, I don't..."

"Oh, for God's sake, Kei chan!" she cried. "I'm suggesting you escort her to dinner, not fuck her in Belldandy's bed!"

He held up a finger. "Okay... totally uncalled for."

"I'm sorry," she said with a sigh. "But it's been three years, and I think it's about time that_ both_ of you stop tip-toeing around this. I mean you _want_ her to have a great time, right? You're her best friend, right? Who else could take her to this thing and show her a better time?"

Keiichi said nothing.

"Let me ask you this, Kei chan," she said quietly. "If you were getting an award for being the best stunt pilot in Japan... would you want Urd there?"

The pilot took a breath. "Where the hell do I get a limo on what I make?"

"You _do_ know people with limos," she hinted.

888

"Keiichi, come in!" Teletha invited, waving him into her office. It was just past seven, and the lights of Nekomi lit up the city outside the CEO's window. Her lights were dimmed, giving the office a much more warm and intimate atmosphere. "I was just finishing up some last-minute work. What can I do for you?"

"I need a favor," he said, taking the seat across her desk. "This banquet thing. I want to make it a big deal for Urd, and I need some help."

She sat down and rested her chin on her hands. "That's so sweet," she said. "Of course I'll help. What can I do?"

"Well, for starters, what can you tell me about what's going to happen?"

"Well!" Teletha began, rising from her chair and circling her desk. "The ceremony is essentially a big party in the Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo. There's some hob-nobbing in the beginning, then dinner and then the presentation. Afterward, there's dancing. It's a very nice evening."

"Dancing, huh?" he asked.

"Indeed, indeed, indeed," Teletha agreed.

"Are you going to be there?" he asked.

"Oh, of course! I go every year!" Her face darkened. "Besides, I have to make sure that a certain shameless tramp at Chidori's Secret doesn't poach my best model."

"I'm not a very good dancer," Keiichi admitted.

Teletha sighed. "A curse with which I am well familiar," she said. "I'm afraid I can't help you there. Is there something else I can help with?"

"I need a limo," he told her.

"Done!"

"Anything else I need?" he asked.

"It's a tuxedo event," she said. "I'll make you an appointment with Ho-Chi so he can make you a tux."

"Thanks, Teletha."

"It's no problem, Keiichi," she said. "I think it's romantic!"

He cleared his throat. "You know... we're just friends..." he assured her.

Teletha smiled and leaned in close. "They're always 'just friends' until one of them has either a moment of weakness or a moment of strength to say something that changes things." She stood up and went back behind her desk.

Keiichi took a breath, wondering if this was still such a hot idea and strode from the CEO's office. Teletha watched him go and smiled.

888

At first, Keiichi was concerned when he found out that Urd was on the roof. Normally, they reserved that spot for brooding. When he finally put the ladder up and climbed up the shingled roof to find her, he found the goddess not reflecting on the bad, but grinning broadly with a bottle of sake in her hand.

"There you are!" she cried at seeing him. "Come here! We need a toast!"

"What are you doing up here?" he asked as she unsteadily pushed a paper cup of sake into his hand.

"I'm throwing a 'Yay, me!' party!" Urd announced. She drank another shot. "Yay, me!"

"Up here?" he asked. "By yourself?"

She shrugged. "Who am I going to invite?" she replied with a wave. "Peorth and Sayoko? I don't like either of them enough to want to get drunk with them. Besides, this is more of an impromptu bit of carousing."

He looked out at the view from their perch. The lights from the gypsy carnival were subdued and didn't take away from the lights of the city as they lit up the sky. Urd poured herself another one and held it up.

"To spare panties!" she toasted.

He drank as she downed the shot and started to laugh. Sitting down, she let her legs swing over the edge of the temple roof. The boy sat down next to her, and she immediately poured him another.

"Damn, I wish Belldandy were here," she whispered out at the lights.

"She'd be so proud of you," Keiichi assured her.

"It would make for a nice change," Urd told him. "I don't mean to say that she was disappointed in me a lot, but it would be nice if I could make her genuinely proud to be my little sister."

"You know she is," the young man told her.

"You know the best part?" Urd asked. "It's the vindication."

At his questioning look, she went on. "Remember when I got suspended? Lost all my godly powers? I couldn't do jack without them. The best I could do... me, Lady Urd... was wait tables at Anna Miller's for minimum wage. You know how often I use my powers in this job?"

Keiichi shrugged.

"Zero!" she announced. "It's all on my own! Just me and my smoking-hot body!" She leaned back on the roof and took an accomplished breath. "Funny, isn't it?" she asked. "In my regular job I wield a power over the Earth that you can't even imagine, make sure it spins right on schedule on a daily basis... and this is what I'm most proud of. My mortal job. My mortal _life._"

The boy took another slug from his cup.

"Is that weird?' she suddenly asked. "Should I feel weird about that?"

"No!" he replied quickly. "I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it might not seem like a lot, but for a regular, mortal woman, this is huge stuff. And really, you could say that's how you've been living for the last three years."

She sat back up and smiled. "Everything's changed," she said. "I almost don't even feel like a goddess anymore. I feel..."

The goddess-woman turned and found that she had moved much closer to her roommate than she thought she had. Suddenly, she was looking into his brown eyes and losing her train of thought.

"... like this is where I belong," she finished quietly.

They stared at each other for several moments, both painfully aware of how awkward the situation was but unsure what could be done to extricate themselves from it. Finally, it was Peorth who came to their rescue.

"Keiichi?" the French goddess called. "Megumi's on the phone!"

Keiichi continued to stare into Urd's jade eyes. "I better get that," he said.

"Yeah," Urd agreed with a quick nod. "That would probably be best..."

The boy broke from her gaze and walked to the ladder, leaving the goddess alone. Urd took a sudden, long pull from the bottle and took a deep breath.

A moment later, her eyes narrowed. "Isn't there some rule that says you can't come out unless I summon you?"

On her left, World of Elegance shrugged with a grin. She clasped her hands together and sighed theatrically.

"What do you mean, 'an enchanted moment?'" Urd demanded bitterly. "There was absolutely nothing about that conversation I would call 'enchanted.' We just talked about random crap!"

Elegance cocked her head and arched an eyebrow. Urd waited several moments before replying.

"I'm drunk," Urd told her by way of explanation. "A drunk woman says stupid things. I count myself fortunate that I was able to rein those things back this time."

The angel swept around in front of her and grinned evilly.

"By 'those things,'" Urd said carefully, "I, of course, mean... embarrassing things about... underwear."

Elegance pushed a little further.

"No," Urd said. "No." She took another pull from the bottle. "Nothing like that."

The ethereal being floated backwards and looked a question at her.

Urd looked up at her, half-annoyed, half chagrined, as if she had just been caught and knew it. Instead of denying it, a futile thing, she realized, she looked away. "I can't tell him."

World of Elegance bounced into the air and spun around at the half-confession.

"You think I'm happy about this?" Urd asked her quietly. "You think I like feeling this way about a man I could never have?"

The angel looked down at her and blinked a question.

"_I_ say so!" Urd declared angrily.

Elegance put her hands on her hips and glared at her mistress.

"What do you mean I'm an idiot!?" Urd cried in shock. "You can't call me an idiot! You're my angel!"

The angel folded her arms over her chest and sniffed.

"Fine! Fine! You win, Elegance!" Urd said, throwing the sake bottle off the roof. "I'll just go downstairs, pull Keiichi into his room and rip his clothes off! Then I'll tell him to forget all about Belldandy, that I'll be his goddess for the rest of his life! Then we'll make love for eight straight days, and get married in a quickie ceremony! I'm sure Teletha is licensed to marry people; God knows she can do everything else! Then when Belldandy finally does come back, I'll just say, 'snooze, you lose.' Sound good to you?"

Elegance blinked at her...

Then started nodding enthusiastically.

Urd shook her head. "Wow," she muttered. "Only _my_ angel could think that's a good idea..."

"Everyone! Guess what!" she heard Keiichi cry from downstairs. Urd leaned over the side of the roof and found Keiichi rushing outside. He caught sight of her and looked up, grinning.

"Megumi's getting married!" he cried.

Elegance clasped her hands in joy, and Urd grinned. "I wonder which one of them proposed!"

"Does it matter?!"

Urd thought about it for a minute. "I guess it really doesn't," she answered softly. "As long as one of them does." She grinned a moment later and called out to him. "Hey, Keiichi! Your brother wears tights for a living!"

The boy groaned and went back inside. Urd smiled. She loved giving him grief.

World of Elegance hugged her from behind and whispered into her ear. Urd looked down and bit her lip. "I'd like to," she whispered back. "I've already been with him twice as long as Belldandy has, been with him during some of his proudest moments. I've been his friend, his companion, his guardian... everything but what I _want_ to be..." She wiped her eye. "He's the only one I can talk to like this... aside from... well... you and Belldandy. He's something good and pure..." She thought on that for a moment. "Maybe that's why I can't... He deserves someone like Belldandy... not someone like me..."

Elegance whispered angrily to her.

"It's not self-loathing," Urd told her. "It's the truth. Belldandy represents the best Heaven has to offer. The love of a goddess like her is priceless. I want him to have that."

The angel whispered again.

"I thought I _was_ giving it to him," Urd told her.

Elegance squeezed her shoulders.

"No," Urd whispered. "Not from me."

She felt her higher self embrace her consolingly and smiled. "I wish you had been around while I was with Troubadour," she said. "Maybe I would have dumped him long before he left me."

The angel hugged her tighter.

888

"What time is it?" Keiichi asked even as he raised his wrist to check his watch. "Wow..."

"Almost ten," his wife told him. "I didn't realize we'd been talking for that long."

"Shit, I should've called Mischa," the engineer grumbled. He curled his lips into an exaggerated grimace. "Mori-saw-to," he imitated the Russian. "You no want to sell new jet? You have no balls for jet? Jet has balls. Why you have no balls?" He let out a breath and sighed.

"I'm sorry," Belldandy told them both. "It's been a long day for us all, I think." She stood up and put on a smile. "Neesan needs rest, and so do you, Keiichi san. We can continue tomorrow." She rose to her feet, and suddenly, with no warning, her smile faded into nothingness.

She looked down at the ground, suddenly embarrassed. Keiichi and Urd looked up at her, puzzled at the change.

"I'm sorry," Belldandy whispered. "I suddenly remembered... I... I don't live here anymore."

Urd stood up and embraced her sister. "You'll always have a place here, Sis," she whispered.

Keiichi smiled uncomfortably. "We kept your room just like you left it," he told her.

Belldandy looked at them both. "I... I knew you did for the first few years... but even today?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. I know you might not believe this, coming back and finding things the way they are, but we always hoped you would come back to us."

The sentiment touched her, and for a moment, she forgot any lingering ill feelings she had toward them.

"Thank you," she said.

"Why don't you go take a bath and get some rest?" Urd suggested. "We can talk more in the morning."

"I think that sounds good," the middle Norn agreed. "There is still much to hear."

888

Urd sat at her mirror and brushed her long, moonlight hair as her husband arranged their futon for the night. Belldandy was already asleep in the next room, and the two had some privacy for the first time that day.

"So, what do you think?" Keiichi asked her quietly as she finished her hundredth stroke and switched the brush to the other hand. He looked up at her in concern. "Is it her?"

The goddess put the brush down. "She answered the challenge questions..."

"Those questions were designed based on what _I_ didn't know about her," Keiichi reminded her. He fixed his wife with a concerned stare. "What if she's after you this time?"

She started brushing her hair again. "I'm pretty sure it's her. Last time it was a matter of looking fair and feeling foul. This time she's fair all around."

Urd thought on it for a moment. "Why? How did she seem to you?"

"Like Belldandy," he replied. "Just like I remembered her." He paused in self reproach. "But I've said that before."

"I believe it's her," Urd said firmly. "It feels right." She gave her hair three more strokes before going on with her next thought. "All the same... I want you to go to work early tomorrow... and don't come back until I call you."

"Funny, I was going to take her to work with me and not bring her home until _I_ was sure."

"Are we going to have a contest to see who gets to put their ass on the line?" Urd asked him, running the brush furiously through her hair. "I'm ninety-nine percent sure it's her."

Keiichi got under the covers and looked up at the ceiling. "How much are you going to tell her about seven years ago?"

"All of it," Urd answered.

"Is that wise?" he asked, turning his head to watch her stand up, the purple silk of her nightgown billowing around her legs. "If it's not her... then the only advantage we might have is that she doesn't know how _much_ we know."

"If it's not her, what we know or don't know isn't going to keep her from striking," Urd told him as she knelt next to him. "Right now, I prefer to believe it's her." She smiled and swung a leg over him, straddling him. "You know... this is the first time in a week you haven't been working late..."

"You think that's a good idea?" he asked quietly as the goddess ran her hands over his chest.

"Why wouldn't it be?" she asked slyly.

"Jealousy storms," he replied. "The fact that Belldandy's in the next room, our walls are made of paper, and you, Angel, yowl like a wildcat?"

"You've never complained before," she whispered pointedly.

"I just don't want to seem like we're rubbing her nose in our marriage," he said quietly. "This has to be hard enough for her."

Urd's face pinched, realizing he was right but not liking it.

Keiichi realized what part of the problem was. Urd waited ten years for her sister to be released, wanting to see her again but dreading it at the same time. Now her husband's ex-girlfriend was back, a woman who'd always unconsciously made her feel inadequate, and Urd needed reassurance.

The engineer learned long ago that you couldn't hold a firm line with Urd and expect her to go along with you unless you were willing to accept a truly Pyrrhic victory. You had to charm her, tease her along. He smiled up at her.

"Oh, and you might want to tone it down a bit," he said mock-casually.

She blinked down at him. "Excuse me?" she demanded.

"You know what I mean," he said teasingly. "You can't walk around looking as sexy as you do, okay? You're going to inspire me to bad things."

Urd smiled, catching onto what he was trying to do. "Fine," she sighed dramatically. "I'll just wear my yukata for the next few days."

"Oh, like that will work..." he replied, resting his hands on her thighs.

"And what is wrong with that?" she asked haughtily. "You've never complained about my yukata, and it's very comfortable."

"Well, it should be," he said with an arched eyebrow. "We both know you don't wear anything under your yukata."

"Bitch! Bitch! Bitch!" she complained, leaning down and bringing her lips to within an inch of his.

He reached up and ran his hands through her hair. She shut her eyes and luxuriated in the feel of his hands. "What happened to toning it down?" she asked.

"Well," he whispered. "We'll just have to be really quiet..."

She grinned wickedly and kissed him fiercely.

888

Belldandy lay awake on her futon, looking up at the ceiling, unable to drift off to sleep. Part of that might have been the fact that she had just woke up from a ten-year sleep. But a large part of it was simply her mind trying to digest what she had learned today.

Truth-be-told, she was having a very hard time blaming either of them for what happened. They fell in love. It happens to people every day.

But it happened to her sister and _her_ Keiichi, and that's why it hurt.

Now that the shock was wearing off, she started to wonder what she should do now. Megumi asked her to bless their marriage, to ease the suffering in her sister's heart, but how could she do something like that and mean it?

Belldandy was not a goddess who often had dark thoughts, but for just half a second, something whispered into her mind, something unforgivable, a thought laced with hope and edged with cruelty.

_Take him back._


	21. Promises, Promises

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 21**

**Promises, Promises**

Belldandy tied the apron around her and took a look at the task before her. Keiichi had woken early, it seemed, eaten a simple breakfast and left before either herself or her sister had risen from bed. He wasn't a complete slob, but had left a few dishes in the sink.

If he had simply roused her, she would have gladly made breakfast for him...

But why didn't Neesan do it? She was his wife, yes? Wasn't it her role to do such things for him?

She picked up a small bowl from the sink and reached out to turn on the water, her hand freezing to a stop an inch from the nozzle.

_Stop,_ a voice in her head ordered. _It's not your place to do this._

Her outstretched fingers curled into an annoyed fist before completing their task and turning on the water. She reached for a sponge and got to work.

_Taking care of Keiichi san will _always_ be my place,_ she told the voice bitterly.

The exchange brought last night's thoughts to her mind. Of course she couldn't try to break up Keiichi and her sister. It was a horrible thought to begin with made worse by the knowledge that she would never succeed. Keiichi was not the kind of man to abandon his pregnant wife. Even if he loved Belldandy with all his heart, his stubborn nobility would never allow him to simply abandon Urd. She felt dirty just thinking of the attempt.

She looked up as her sister walked into the kitchen. The elder goddess saw what Belldandy was doing and stepped forward. "Belldandy, you don't have to do that stuff..."

"I'm happy to," Belldandy told her, turning back to her task.

Urd let her work and started a kettle of tea. As she worked, Belldandy turned toward her.

"Are you feeling better?" Belldandy asked her.

"Huh?" her sister replied.

The younger goddess turned back to the dishes. "I could hear you tossing and turning all night from my room," she said. Urd went ashen as she continued. "Were you having a nightmare about something happening to Keiichi san? I heard you calling his name all night..."

Urd coughed sheepishly.

_Great, I guess I really am loud,_ she thought. _Good thing Keiichi's not here. I'd never live this one down..._

"Yeah, I'm feeling much better," she said instead. "How did you sleep?"

"I have a lot to think about," Belldandy told her simply.

The answer unsettled Urd, though she couldn't figure out why. She sat at the table and watched Belldandy as she did the dishes. "So," she said uncertainly. "Where did we leave off?"

"Megumi san's engagement," Belldandy told her in a businesslike fashion.

"Right," Urd said, leaning back. "Well, a few days later Megumi and Toshio had their engagement party at Megumi's place. The next morning was... interesting..."

_Seven years ago..._

The shock of the impact dazed him, and he spent precious seconds blinking the stars out of his eyes. When they finally opened, he found himself in darkness, the only light coming from the Shinden's displays in front of him. Looking up through the canopy, he could see only darkness.

Then he felt something, a frigid burning at his ankles as ice-cold water splashed over the top of his boots, the water rising up his legs. He looked up again, and this time, in the light of the displays, he could make out something moving outside the canopy...

Bubbles.

He was under water.

The boy started to panic as the ice water lapped at his ankles. Reaching up, he pressed against the canopy, struggling to open it, but it wouldn't budge. He beat against it with his hands as the water rose to his chest, immersing the instrument panels which flickered and died.

He was in total darkness... beating at the canopy while screaming in fear. His only way of knowing about his environment came by the feeling of the water rising.

He took one last deep breath as the water rose above his head and silenced his screaming...

When Keiichi Morisato's eyes opened and the white light from outside the window stabbed into his hung-over brain, he realized that he was lying on a strange futon, definitely not in the Shinden. The second thing he realized was that there was something warm tucked into the crook of his right arm.

He felt the feminine warmth from the body of the goddess snuggled up to him and deduced that at some point last night, they had passed out on a futon in Megumi's guest room. Presented with an uncomfortable situation in a hung-over state, Keiichi froze, not sure what to do.

The goddess stirred and looked up at him. "Bonjour, mon amour," Peorth said with a smile.

Keiichi turned red and looked from side to side, searching for someone else or a possible escape route.

Peorth sat up and stretched, her top rising over her navel as she reached for the roof.

"Um... hi," he squeaked. She responded by turning her head and smiling at him as she rubbed the kinks out of the back of her neck.

She must have noticed the distinct shade of red that covered his face because she took pity on him a moment later. "You can relax, cheri," she whispered. "If you'll notice, your pants are still on."

He did, indeed, look down at the point as if to double check. "Right," he coughed. "So..."

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," she said, turning her body toward him. "I stumbled in here last night and passed out on the futon. I didn't know you were here."

The lie couldn't have been more blatant if she was an American politician. She hadn't even drunk that much at the party. But it was yet another opportunity to accomplish a first and be the first to wake up in the boy's arms.

"It's okay," he said quickly. "I just haven't drunk that much in awhile."

"Well..." she continued. "Merci."

"For what?" he asked, puzzled.

"Keiichi, do you know how long it's been since I slept next to the warmth of a kind man?"

That distinct shade of red returned to his face. "I thought we... um... didn't..."

"I said 'slept,' Keiichi," she told him. She took his hand and smiled. "Haven't you ever just fallen asleep next to a girl before?"

"I have, actually," he said, breaking her grip and rising to his feet.

"And?" she pushed. She knew he had slept next to Belldandy, what she didn't know was that he had also done so with Urd, although he was knocked unconscious at the time.

"And what?" he asked, a little perturbed and exasperated by the questioning.

"Does it not comfort your rest?" she asked, content to remain seated as he looked down at her. "It comforts mine."

"If you must know, I didn't sleep very well," he told her irritably.

"Desole," she apologized.

"It's not your fault," he said, feeling bad for being irritated. He stepped into the hallway and started for the living room, finding a few sleeping partygoers as he went, draped over furniture or just lying where they passed out.

The only person he found awake was Urd, who was standing at the kitchen counter, microwaving a cup of water to make coffee.

"'Morning," he grumbled, coming up next to her.

She didn't look at him. "'Morning," she said in reply. "Coffee?"

"Sure," he rasped painfully. Some coffee sounded like just what the doctor ordered. He hadn't drunk that much since... well... he still didn't like to think about those days. But some coffee and some time to decompress would...

"So did you fuck Peorth?"

_Oh, God, here we go..._ his brain warned.

"What?" he asked wearily, trying to pretend he didn't hear the accusatory question.

"I was just curious," Urd said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I mean, after all, she followed you into the guest room right after you went in there and neither of you came out again. Makes sense..."

His head was pounding, and he wasn't sure where this was going. All he knew was that he was in no mood for games this morning.

"Don't mince words, Urd," he said sarcastically, rubbing his temples. "Tell me what you really think."

She shrugged again, but refused to face him.

"Look, whether or not I slept with Peorth is none of your business," he told her pointedly. She turned her fiery jade eyes on him and glared.

"It's my business when you playing around with someone can bring down the System Force," she argued.

"Oh, come on," he shot back as the microwave beeped. He watched the goddess pull the door open and pull out a cup of steaming water. "That has been thoroughly debunked. Even if I did do something with Peorth, why do you care? I mean you practically gave me roofies to give to Kiyoshi!"

"I care because I'm your goddess, dammit!" Urd hotly fired back. "And it's my job to speak up when I see you about to make a mistake with a scheming, manipulative slut..."

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he cried, amazed at what he was hearing. "The first time she came here she did everything she possibly could to break me and Belldandy up, and you did _nothing_!" Urd puffed up like an angry cobra at the accusation, but Keiichi went on. "And now that all that is over with and she's actually being downright _pleasant_, all of a sudden you have a problem with her?!"

Urd started scooping instant coffee into her cup, one after another after another, oblivious to it in her anger. "Fine!" she hissed. "Fine! Just go and fuck whoever you want!"

"I'm not fucking anyone!" he cried, exasperated.

"THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP!" every other person trying to sleep in the living room shouted at them.

The two were silent for several moments after that, both seething in embarrassment.

She shoved the cup of coffee, now little more than brown sludge, into his hands. "Well, then I guess we're all content." The goddess stormed off and out the front door.

Keiichi stood there, dumbfounded. "Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on!?"

Megumi yawned as she walked past him. "If you have to ask, Kei chan, you'll never know."

888

At first, he just assumed Urd was still mad at him. It made sense. After all, he walked through the door and immediately had to duck in order to avoid a dinner plate hurled in his direction.

The plate hit the doorframe and shattered. "What the..."

"Get out!" he heard a woman shriek. "Get out of here!"

He looked up and found the owner of the voice, who wasn't directing her command toward him, but toward a well-dressed man nearby. Sayoko held another plate up, ready to hurl it at a moment's notice.

"Come on, Cousin!" the man replied unctuously. "It was a sincere offer."

"I bet it was, you bombastic simpleton!" Sayoko returned. "Now get out!"

The man turned, and Keiichi suddenly found himself face to face with Toshiyuki Aoshima. The man was brought up short by the sight of his one-time romantic rival.

"Ah... Morisato," he said, straightening his tie.

"Aoshima," he returned quietly. "There a problem here?"

"No problem," Aoshima told him. "I was just visiting my cousin..."

"This little urchin just offered me a job, Keiichi," Sayoko told him snidely.

"Well, that was nice of him," Keiichi said neutrally, aware that there was guaranteed to be more to this story.

"As his maid," Sayoko bit out in conclusion.

"Wow," Keiichi noted. "You came all this way to insult your cousin. That's outstanding..."

"It would get you into the mansion," Aoshima told her. "After a few months, I'm sure Uncle Kane would be so embarrassed that he would..."

Sayoko screamed and reached back to hurl the dinner plate at him.

Keiichi chose this moment to intervene. He snagged Aoshima's earlobe and started dragging the man toward the door. "Okay, I've heard enough," he said.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Aoshima cried as he was dragged outside.

Sayoko lowered the plate as Keiichi launched the man out the door.

"I was only trying to help!" Aoshima shouted, dusting himself off. "It's not my fault the little slut got herself knocked up!"

Keiichi pointed a finger at him. After the morning he'd had, Keiichi knew Aoshima was in a dangerous place.

"You shut your face, Aoshima!" he hissed. "You shut it and you get off this property right now!"

"This is family business, Morisato!" Aoshima growled at him.

"Yeah, and she's not your family anymore, remember?" Keiichi snapped back. "Now get out of here! If I see you here again, I'll let Urd have her fun with you." He saw Aoshima come up short and pressed the threat. "She still has that whip your little henchmen 'gave' her," he told him.

Aoshima glared, but didn't speak as he marched toward the torii gate. Keiichi took a breath and turned to go back into the house. When he got there, he found Sayoko pacing back and forth in the center of the living room, a thoroughly pissed off look on her face.

Keiichi approached her warily, the plate she still clutched in her hand prominently on his mind. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She shook her head as she stalked back and forth like a caged tiger. "That... That... Can you believe him?! The idea that I would work as his family's maid! The idea that it would shame my father into taking me back! _Shame him_ into... into... letting me be his daughter again!"

Keiichi didn't say anything, understanding the dilemma Sayoko was in. She loved her father and didn't want to bring anymore shame to him than she already had. The idea of him taking her back into the family out of a sense of embarrassment made her feel even lower than she already did.

"I'm sure it will work out," he told her softly, realizing how utterly hollow the words sounded.

She stopped pacing and looked at the floor, gritting her teeth. "No, it's not," she said. "Not the way I'd like it to. I'm on my own now, Keiichi. No family but the one I have on the way."

"Sayoko," he said quietly. "That's not true." She looked up and saw him smiling. "We're your family now. And you'll always have a home here."

She sighed. "Keiichi," she said, shaking her head. "You've got to learn to be more cold-blooded, or you're not going to get anywhere in life."

The woman left the stunned boy blinking in the living room as she walked to her bedroom, too oblivious to realize she had just insulted the only man on Earth willing to really help her and too depressed to care even if she wasn't.

888

"Well, don't you look angry, Cheri?"

Urd froze in her tracks and turned, finding the one goddess she didn't want to see standing on the sidewalk behind her.

The Norn folded her arms over her chest and grit her teeth. This wasn't how she wanted to spend her morning sulking. All she wanted to do was go for a walk and try to forget that Peorth even existed.

It wasn't that she was necessarily _jealous_ of Peorth. After all, Peorth didn't even really love Keiichi, she was just pretending for Belldandy's sake. It was the way Peorth could so cooly toy with the boy's heart that pissed her off. Perhaps she was being unfair, but she couldn't stand the idea that the other love goddess might be able to successfully seduce Keiichi while Urd was powerless to stop it.

"What do you want, Peorth?"

Peorth waited until she had caught up to the other goddess before beginning. "In light of your little hissy-fit back there, I wanted to impress upon you again... you should leave."

Urd swung on her, enraged by her pique. "I will leave when Keiichi is happily engaged to a kind, beautiful woman... who is one hundred percent _not_ you!"

"I understand you're hurt by all this," Peorth told her sympathetically.

"This doesn't hurt half as much as I'll hurt you if you continue toying with him like this," Urd bit out. "Don't push me, Peorth. Belldandy was always too lady-like to give you the ass-kicking you deserve. Do not make the mistake of believing our family resemblance extends that far."

"Don't you dare threaten me, Urd," Peorth hissed. "Remember, _I'm_ the one trying to do the right thing here."

Urd opened her mouth to reply, but something caught her eye and arrested her retort. She blinked and squinted, trying to make sure she actually saw what she saw.

"Quoi?" Peorth asked, suddenly self conscious by the examination.

"You have a blue zit."

"EH?!"

"On your forehead," Urd elaborated. She watched Peorth's hand shoot to her forehead to check.

"Mon Dieu!" she cried. She saw Urd's almost triumphant smile... and something just above it. "You have them too!"

Urd's hand went to her face, checking her skin and finding several blemishes. "Crap!"

"Well," Peorth huffed. "Doesn't this just complicate things?"

The Norn didn't reply.

"We'll have to go back to Heaven," Peorth continued. "Find a goddess willing to..."

"We can't," Urd cut her off. "One of us has to remain near Keiichi, and if we both have it..."

"So what do we do?" Peorth asked. "We only have a few hours to find suitable hosts."

Urd thought on it for a moment, their previous argument out of her thoughts. "Okay... you go back to Heaven. I'll stay here..."

"And what?" Peorth asked with a skeptical eyebrow raised. "You need a goddess for shelter..."

"No," Urd replied evasively. "There is someone who could do the job."

"Well, perhaps they'll shelter Gorgeous Rose as well," Peorth told her, getting the gist of what Urd was trying to do.

With Peorth in tow, Urd grumbled all the way home.

888

Keiichi cracked an egg and dumped the yolk into a coffee cup before reaching for the pepper, the first ingredients of his hangover cure.

As he was measuring the pepper out, Urd and Peorth walked into the kitchen, neither looking happy. He sighed and turned.

"Okay," he began with a sigh. "What now?" He crossed his arms over his chest, fully expecting some childish bitch-fest. What met him instead was a rare moment of an Urd-Peorth united front.

"Keiichi, we're sick," Urd told him straight out.

He blinked, the annoyed look wiped from his face in a moment. "Wait... What? Sick? How sick?"

"It's... a little embarrassing, actually," Peorth said sheepishly.

"It's Griffin Pox," Urd explained. "One of us probably picked it up somewhere and gave it to the other. It's not that big a deal. It runs its course in a day or so."

Keiichi, remembering when Belldandy was sick and how close she came to death, breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, so you're going to eat some chicken soup and rest?"

"Sort of," Urd told him. "It's not a big deal for us... but the virus can do lasting damage to angels."

"So..." Keiichi prompted.

Peorth came in and explained the rest. "We need someone to hold our angels for us until this blows over."

Keiichi looked from one goddess to the other. "You can do that?" he asked skeptically.

"It's... not unheard of," Urd relented.

"We need you to provide a safe harbor for our angels, Keiichi," Peorth went on. "While you hold them, we'll sleep until our bodies fight off the infection. Tomorrow, you give us back our angels and everything goes back to normal."

"Um... so... I'll have two angels..."

"Kinda sorta," Urd said, holding her hand up. "You won't have them the way _we_ have them. They won't know your thoughts and you won't know theirs and..." She suddenly went quiet as if she were in danger of saying too much.

Keiichi caught it. "And?" he asked firmly.

Urd cleared her throat. "Well... just that... you um... wouldn't be able to order them around the way we do."

The boy's eyes narrowed. "So... basically... I'd have reflections of the two of you... in a confined space... and no way to control them..."

"Oui!" Peorth said, seemingly glad that Keiichi was getting it.

"Okay, what on Earth makes either of you think for a _moment_ that this is a good idea?" Keiichi demanded.

"Look," Urd said. "There's no other option, okay? Either we do this, or we both have to go back to Heaven to find someone else who will."

Keiichi nodded. "Okay. What do I have to do?"

888

"Okay, look, you're going to be on your own for awhile, all right?"

World of Elegance smiled mischievously at the statement, causing her mistress to sigh.

Urd pursed her lips. She wanted a moment alone with her angel before she gave her to Keiichi.

"Behave yourself," Urd warned her. "And don't go saying anything you know you shouldn't."

The angel gave her a "Who? Me?" look and fanned herself with her hand at the accusation.

888

"Don't say anything I wouldn't want you to say," Peorth told Gorgeous Rose in the other room. "But if you see an opportunity to raise our esteem in his eyes, then do what you feel is best."

Floating before her, Gorgeous Rose smiled and held up her fingers in the "Scout's Honor" pledge.

Peorth bit her lip. "Also... try to present yourself properly. Remember that you represent me."

The angel cocked her head as if to say, "Whatever do you mean?"

The goddess sighed.

888

Keiichi's eyes opened for the second time that day, and he once again took a deep, cleansing breath. He wasn't sure what to expect. The last thing he remembered was Urd assuring him that it would only take a moment. Then he closed his eyes and woke up in his room.

Turning his head, he saw Peorth lying next to him, not for the first time that day. This time, however, she remained peacefully asleep. He turned his head and found Urd lying on the other side of him.

He sat up and scratched the back of his head. Of the goddess's angels, there was no sign. Standing up, he checked over the goddesses, making sure they looked comfortable. Aside from the blue zits that dotted each of their faces, they appeared to be doing nothing more than napping.

Urd had told him that when the zits disappeared, he could bring the angels back in the room, and they would return to their mistresses. Until then, he was on his own.

So far, however, it didn't seem like a big deal. The angels would probably just hang out in his soul and wait things out.

He walked to the kitchen and started to root around in the fridge for lunch. Emerging from the refrigerator with a leftover bento, he stood up and nearly jumped out of his skin.

Floating in front of him was Urd's angel.

The pilot had seen World of Elegance before, granted not quite this close up. The first thing he noticed, and wondered how he had never noticed before, was how her skin was both black and white, as if she were covered in tattoos. Black or white, however, her body seemed infused with a soft light she gently shed as she floated. She gave him a warm smile, resting her chin in her hand.

"Um... hi," he said, not expecting an answer. He had never heard Holy Bell or any other angel speak before. It made him wonder how the goddesses communicated with them. "I'm Keiichi," he told her.

World of Elegance nodded.

"And you're World of Elegance, right?" he asked stupidly. At her smiling nod, he went on. "Wow... that's a mouthful."

Her eyes dropped down to his midsection for a moment, and for a second, Keiichi felt like blushing.

He cleared his throat, and her blue eyes caught him again. "So... do you go by 'World?' Or... 'Double-you-Oh-Ee?'"

The boy sighed, realizing how stupid he sounded. He sat down at the table. The angel floated next to him and bent down until her lips were at his ear.

"You can call me 'Elegance,' if you like," she breathed into his ear.

Keiichi turned red at the sound of the voice. It wasn't that he was embarrassed or that she had said something lewd, but the voice, so much like Urd's yet with a deeper octave and a more seductive, silky timbre, suddenly made him feel...

The angel seemed to know what effect her voice had on him. She floated to the other side of him, her fingers grazing over his shoulder and back as she went.

He cleared his throat and shivered as she floated to the seat next to him. "You seemed surprised," she purred.

"I...um... didn't know you could... talk," he said. He blinked as he realized something else. Despite her speech, her lips weren't moving.

"That's because I'm not," she replied. "We're connected on a spiritual level now, which means you can understand me in the fashion that is easiest for you."

"Oh," he said. He quickly shoved a riceball into his mouth in an attempt to keep from saying something stupid. It was probably the wrong time to realize that the angel was technically naked, covered only by strategically-placed wisps of cloud.

She leaned toward him. "Does the sound of my soul's voice... displease you?"

Aside from the fact that her voice seemed to be crafted from pure seduction and oozed sensuality in every decibel... no, it didn't displease him. The fact that it seemed patterned on Urd's voice only made it more complicated.

He swallowed as she watched him. "Where's your friend?" he asked, desperate to change the subject.

"Gorgeous Rose?" Elegance asked with a wink. "Probably taking a nap in your heart. But I wanted to introduce myself since we're destined to get to know one another much better..."

_God, please make her stop_, he begged silently.

"Oh?" he asked aloud.

The angel floated around him and rested her hands on her shoulders. "My mistress has offered me to you," she purred. "That makes you my new... master..."

He suddenly fell out of his chair. Elegance looked down at him with an evil grin on her face. She floated down to him and grabbed his hand.

"Master," she breathed seductively. "Are you all right?"

"I'm good!" he cried, jumping to his feet. "I'm good! I'm fine!"

"Are you certain?" she asked, starting toward him. "Do you require... tending?"

"No! No... tending... needed! I'm just going to go watch TV!"

The angel watched him practically run into the living room and tried to hold back laughter.

888

Keiichi's head was in no condition for this, but it had to be done, and Megumi's party had delayed it. So even though the sound of the hammer slamming into the roof as he nailed another tile in place bounced from wall to wall to wall in his skull, he grit his teeth and bore it as best he could.

At least it was quiet up here. Despite his fears, World of Elegance had not followed him into the living room, and with the goddesses asleep and Sayoko reading her baby books on her day off, it was actually peaceful in the temple today.

His encounter with Urd's angel shook him, though he couldn't figure out why. He knew that, as her angel, Elegance was a reflection of Urd, in a way the inner-most thoughts and feelings the goddess possessed given form. To know Elegance was to know Urd and vice versa.

He had known Urd for years, and World of Elegance had still blown him away. He wondered briefly as he nailed another tile to the roof what Gorgeous Rose would be like. Knowing Peorth as he did, he could only deduce that her angel would be Peorth taken to an n'th degree. This troubled him just a bit. Peorth could be difficult to deal with to begin with. The boy liked Peorth, their past troubles aside. But at the same time he knew the goddess could be haughty, arrogant and more than a little snobbish. He wondered if her angel would even deign to speak to him.

Keiichi placed another tile and raised the hammer to bring it down...

"Hey, there, hot stuff!"

He saw a flash of gold in front of him and stumbled, falling backward...

Right off the roof.

It was a small miracle that he didn't hear any bones break. He landed on a thick patch of grass rather than the stone walkway right next to it. As he stared up at the blue sky, he took a breath and thanked the Almighty that it wasn't worse.

But how did he get down here to begi...

"Oh no!" he heard in a mix of valley girl and American trailer trash. A mop of blonde hair atop a blue-eyed woman appeared before him, green, thorn-laden vines covering over her more interesting parts while her hands covered her mouth in shocked horror. "Your back's all broke and junk! Oh, did I do that?"

He blinked. No... there is no way that's what Peorth's angel sounded like.... It defied logic...

Gorgeous Rose straightened and started looking down her vine-bra. "Let me get out my cellular," she sighed. "Call you an ambulance."

Keiichi raised an arm to tell her it wasn't necessary, but the angel cut him off.

"Oh, wait," she suddenly said, her finger going to her lip. "I ain't got no phone!" She blinked down at him, and seeing the puzzled look on his face, must have assumed a question. "Because I'm an angel," she explained in her quasi-southern drawl.

The boy just stared at her. The angel seemed rather uncomfortable.

"Soooooooooo...." she drawled out. "'Kay! Bye!"

She disappeared in a puff of smoke. Keiichi groaned.

It was going to be a very long day.

888

"Are you sure you don't want to see a doctor?" Sayoko asked as she helped Keiichi into the living room.

"Yeah," he said, wincing. "I'm fine. Nothing's broken... I don't _think_."

"Falling off the roof," Sayoko muttered, shaking her head. "I thought you were supposed to be handy."

"Usually I am," he said with a groan. "I just have really bad luck on that roof."

Sayoko helped him sit down and rose to her full height. She gave him an uncharacteristic sympathetic look. "Do you need anything? Will you be okay?"

"I'm fine," he said with a pained smile. "I'm just going to sit down for a few minutes."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," he said. "Thanks, Sayoko."

She smiled softly and walked down the hall toward her room. Keiichi sighed and picked up the remote, turning on the TV and resolving not to do anything else this weekend that didn't involve relaxing...

"You know what comes on in two minutes?" he heard gently breathed into his right ear. He jumped and turned, seeing Urd's angel floating next to him. "Winter Storm: The Movie Part Four - Storming Toward Dawn. There's a scene where Akio finally tells Kimiko how he feels about her, and they... express themselves..." She emphasized this point by wrapping her arms around his and pressing her ethereal body into his.

He opened his mouth to reply but before he could, a second voice chimed in its opinion.

"NASCAR! NASCAR! NASCAR!"

Turning to his left, he saw Gorgeous Rose floating there, practically bouncing up and down in glee.

"Oh, please, Keiichi!" the blonde angel begged. "I don't ever get to watch racing anymore! Pretty please! With shugah on top?!"

Elegance arched an eyebrow, looking past Keiichi at her counterpart. "You're joking, right?"

"Joking, my ethereal and mystical ass!" Gorgeous Rose shot back.

"It's not even a real sport," Elegance said with an upraised finger.

"Woah!" both Keiichi and Gorgeous Rose replied in unison, turning toward the suddenly outnumbered angel.

"Let's not say things we can't take back," Keiichi suggested meaningfully.

"Just because it's not in the 'Lympics don't mean it ain't a sport," the blonde angel added. "NASCAR is godly... and wreck'n is awesome! And that Kyle Busch... WOOO-EE!"

"You can't be serious," Elegance told them both, irritation creeping into her seductive voice. "NASCAR?"

"It's not the greatest sport," Keiichi relented. "But it's up there."

"A bunch of people driving in circles for three hours?"

"You go back to the start of time," Gorgeous Rose told her pointedly. "One cave guy was fighting another cave guy because his club was bigger than his or his woman had longer hair. _That's_ competition!" She nodded sagely. "Dale Earnhardt."

"That doesn't even make any sense!" Elegance cried.

"Then it's decided!" Keiichi declared. "NASCAR it is!"

He turned the TV to Channel 2 just in time for the race to start.

"This is such bullsh..."

"SHHHH!" Gorgeous Rose hushed her as she bounced excitedly. "We'll _miss_ something!"

"Ugh," Elegance replied, rolling her eyes.

Keiichi watched the blonde angel as she studied the TV screen intently. She seemed to catch sight of his gaze and turned to him. "What?"

"I'm just having a hard time reconciling the fact that you're Peorth's angel," he said.

"Why?" she asked, blinking in innocent puzzlement.

"Well... because Peorth is... and you're... and she's..."

"She's what?" Gorgeous Rose asked.

"A snobbish, manipulative tramp," World of Elegance supplied helpfully. "Whose haughtiness is rivaled only by her immense arrogance."

"Well that doesn't sound like Peorth at all," Gorgeous Rose replied.

"You don't interact with her very often, do you?" Elegance asked.

"I do so!" Rose shot back. "Like when we go to the renaissance fair every year! And when we watch the Indianapolis Colts play! And... Why are you laughing!?"

Elegance was doubled over in laughter. "I get it!" she cried. She pointed at the other angel. "You're where she buries her guilty pleasures!"

"Huh?" Keiichi asked.

Urd's angel grinned at him. "Goddesses, like mortals, present the sides of themselves they choose, but as reflections, we can't hide what we really are."

"So what about you?" Keiichi asked.

Elegance grinned and leaned close to Keiichi. "My mistress feels no guilt from _her_ pleasures," she breathed. "She revels in them."

The sound of the phone ringing saved him.

He leapt to his feet and grabbed the phone off the cradle. "Hello!"

"Jinx! It's Cake!"

"Hey, what's up?" he asked.

"It's the Shinden," she replied. "Jiroo says you need to come down right away."

He sighed. "Yeah, okay."

Keiichi turned to the angels to tell them they were going out. He found World of Elegance watching Gorgeous Rose floating three feet in the air, a cowboy hat atop her head and both fists in the air.

"WOOO!" she screamed at the TV.

"Great," Elegance sighed. "She's a woo-girl. That's just what this arrangement needed."

888

"Okay, let's make this quick," Keiichi said as Jiroo joined him at the hangar door.

"It's weird, Jinx," the mechanic told him. "It's not like we've been doing anything different or anything."

"The point, Jiroo, please," Keiichi begged. "I'm hung over and have..."

"It's like when we first met," he explained.

Keiichi paused. "You mean she's being deliberately difficult?"

"Well, as a mechanic that just sounds stupid," Jiroo told him. "But it sure seems that way sometimes."

Keiichi didn't say anything, his attention now fully on Jiroo.

"She's red-lined on five start-ups, we can't get green across the board no matter what we do. As soon as we fix one thing, something else goes red." The boy paused. "You think... I don't know... she wants a new paint job or something?"

The pilot walked over to the airplane and climbed the maintenance stand so he could climb inside. Once in the pilot's seat, he closed the canopy so he could have some privacy.

"Hey," he said.

_Hey._

"You okay?" he asked. He waited for several moments before deciding he wasn't going to get a reply. "Jiroo says you don't want to fly."

Again, nothing.

"I can't help if you don't talk to me," he told her pointedly.

_I'm tired of flying._

The statement floored him. "What?"

_I said I don't want to fly anymore._

"That doesn't sound like you," he replied. "What's wrong? Where's this coming from?"

_I'm alone, Keiichi. I'm alone, and I feel it. I'm not supposed to be here._

"You are," the man told her. "You're doing great things. You're helping people..."

_I'm supposed to be out there,_ she said. He looked up, saw her nose pointing at the waterline. _At the bottom. With my brothers and sisters. I had a dream that I went there. I belong there, Keiichi. Now I'm just fighting it._

"Shinden," he said.

_If I keep going out there,_ she said. _One day, I'm going to stay out there. I don't want you to be there when I do. I don't want to do this anymore, Keiichi._

Unsure of how to comfort a machine, he reached out and patted the heads-up-display. "It's okay," he said. "If you don't want to fly... you don't have to." He bit his lip. "If you change your mind, just tell me, okay? If you want to do something different, just let me know. We'll figure it out, all right?"

The plane didn't answer. He popped the canopy and descended the ladder where Jiroo was waiting for him.

"Well?" he asked.

Keiichi gathered his thoughts. "Cancel the upcoming demos," he said.

"What?!" Jiroo cried. "It'll cost us thousands!"

"I know," Keiichi told him quietly. "Do it anyway. And take her off the SAR roster. We'll fly those missions with Cessnas."

"Jinx!"

"Do it," Keiichi growled, his tone softening a moment later. "She doesn't want to fly, she doesn't fly."

He walked off, leaving a stunned ground crew behind him.

888

"A suicidal airplane?" World of Elegance asked as Keiichi closed the medicine cabinet, revealing the ethereal presence in the mirror.

Keiichi sighed. "It's survivor's guilt," he said. "Guess it's been coming for awhile."

The sun had gone down an hour ago, and the headache from Keiichi's hangover was _finally_ starting to go away. He took a couple of aspirin and chased them with a glass of water.

"Maybe she just needs a change of scenery!" Gorgeous Rose suggested, appearing over his other shoulder. "You know, like a new pair of shoes or a boyfriend!"

"Nah, I think this goes a little deeper," he confessed.

"Who are you talking to?"

Keiichi's head twisted to the right, his gaze locking onto a puzzled Sayoko.

"Sayoko!" he cried, reflexively looking around to see the reactions on the angels' faces, but both had disappeared. "No one!" he said. "Just... talking to myself..."

"Huh," she said in reply, weighing his answer. "Something on your mind?"

"Got some bad news about a friend of mine," he said.

"Oh," she said hesitantly. "Anyone I know?"

"It's not Belldandy," he said with a smile.

"I didn't mean it like that," she said quickly. "I just..." She sighed. "I just meant if I could help... I'd like to."

He smiled at the sentiment. "Thanks, Sayoko, but I don't think you can help with this."

"Oh," she said, a little put off. "Sorry."

Keiichi arched an eyebrow. "Actually... you might be able to help me with something else."

"Oh yeah?" she asked, suddenly interested again.

"You know how to dance?" he asked her.

"Dance?"

"Yeah, dance," he repeated. "I don't mean like club dance... more like... um... ballroom stuff..."

She crossed her arms over her chest and grinned. "And why would it matter if I knew how to dance like that?"

"I just assumed with your upbringing, that you would know..."

"Oh, I know," she assured him. "Why do you want to know?"

"I need lessons," he told her.

She grinned like a cat that stumbled upon a particularly interesting cat toy. "Why?"

He sighed. "It's... private. Can you teach me?"

Sayoko bit her lip and pretended to think it over. "Well... you _have_ been nice to me..." She smiled. "You have been nice to me. Okay. I'll teach you. And I won't even demand to know why."

"Not here, though," he said.

"My lunch hour then," she said. "I don't use all of it anyway."

"Awesome. Thanks, Sayoko."

She sighed. "Now I'm off to try to sleep," she said. "When is that carnival going to move on anyway? It's been here ever since I moved in."

"Forever," Keiichi told her deadpan.

"Ugh," she groaned. "Great."

Keiichi watched her walk away and smiled. That was done. All he had to do now was keep it from Ur...

"So, who are the lessons for?" World of Elegance whispered into his ear.

He jumped and hit the wall. "Jeez! You gotta do that every time?!" he demanded.

She grinned at him. "Don't dodge the question."

"It's none of your business," he hissed.

"Oh, contraree," Gorgeous Rose supplied from his left. "If it's not Sayoko then who is it? Hmm? Who? Who? Who?"

"No one," he grumbled.

"Keiichi has a girl-friend! Keiichi has a girl-friend!" the angels sang in unison.

"I do not!" he bit out as he stormed away.

"Is it Urd?" Elegance asked, floating up to his right. "You know, she does like to dance..."

"My mistress can cut a mean rug," Gorgeous Rose supplied from his left. "This one time, we were clubbing in Paris, and she had these glow sticks on the ends of strings and she was whirling 'em 'round like WOOOO!"

"Okay, seriously, just stop," Elegance told her. "This is important, ground-breaking stuff here."

"Nothing ground-breaking about it," he said, biting his lip. He tried to think of a good tactic, something that would throw them off. Something that Urd would do...

He decided to lie his ass off.

"I got invited to a wedding," he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

The two angels looked to each other. "Ohhhh," they said in unison.

"See? Just need to know how to dance for the wedding," he told them. He started down the hall, smugly basking in his victory.

"So who you gonna take?" Gorgeous Rose asked to his back.

He froze.

"Nice one," Elegance told her.

Keiichi grinned and turned. "Megumi," he told them.

"Lame," Gorgeous Rose answered.

"It's her wedding, I have to be able to dance with the bride."

Before they could answer, he dashed off into the kitchen.

"Nice dodge," Elegance noted.

"Totally."

888

He peeked in on Urd and Peorth, finding them both sound asleep and still covered in blue zits. After making sure they were comfortable, he silently shut the door and went to his room. He'd had an unusually long day and he just wanted to sleep and hope for better for the next day.

After flopping down on the futon and pulling the covers over himself, she closed his eyes and tried to dream of anything other than water...

"So," he heard from his left. He opened his eyes and sighed as the voice went on. "Who is it?"

He turned his head and found World of Elegance floating next to him, awfully close for two people lying together in the same futon.

The man blushed and looked up at the ceiling. "Where's your best friend?" he asked.

Elegance grinned. "I told her racing was coming on Channel 24 right after the news," she said. "She's in the living room."

Keiichi blinked. "Channel 24 is CNN," he noted.

"I know," Elegance purred. "It doesn't seem fair, does it? I thought about waving a laser pointer back and forth on the carpet so she can chase it, but that just seems mean..."

He rolled away from the angel and closed his eyes. "So who is it?" she asked again.

"Who?" he asked, just trying to go to sleep.

"You don't just take dancing lessons for anyone," Elegance breathed. "You're planning something."

"I'm not planning anything," he said. "I told you..."

"You're a liar, Keiichi Morisato," Elegance replied with gentle mirth. "But not a good one." Before he could reply, Elegance suddenly moved over him, her arms on his shoulders as if straddling him. "And I know you're not learning for Peorth's benefit."

"Oh?" he squeaked. "How do you guess that?"

"Because," she whispered. "_Her_ angel doesn't make you blush..." She leaned down toward him until their noses were only an inch apart. "Ne?"

He cleared his throat. "It's a surprise."

"Is it really?" she asked.

"Yes," he told her firmly. "So you can't tell her."

"Why would I tell her?" she whispered.

"Because you're _her_ angel," he replied. "So you can't tell her."

"Mmm," she purred. "But I _am_ her angel," she noted. "I _must_ obey the commands of my mistress. What makes you think I have a choice?"

"You mean like that order to never come out again?" he asked. He saw her eyes widen a little. "Yeah, you _are_ her reflection. That tells me you follow the rules as much as she does, which means only as much as you care to."

"I see," she whispered. "And if I keep your little secret, what do _I_ get?"

"The satisfaction of knowing your mistress will have a nice surprise," he told her.

"Funny," she whispered. "I was going to use the word 'satisfaction' too... granted not in that way..."

"You're a tease," he said. "You're just like her."

"Am I?" she asked him. She smiled. "Perhaps I am. I tell you what," she went on. "A secret for a secret."

"I don't want..."

"I will answer any five questions about my mistress," Elegance went on, "... that call for a 'yes' or a 'no.'"

Keiichi rolled his eyes. "Elegance..."

"My mistress believes strongly in fair play," she whispered. "Otherwise, I won't feel good about keeping your little secret..."

"Fine," he relented. He thought for a moment. "Is blue Urd's favorite color?"

"No, and give me something hard here," she replied quickly. She grinned a moment later. "So to speak..."

He groaned at the awful joke and gave his next question more thought, something useful. "Does Urd like to dance?"

"Yes."

"Did she ever dance with Troubadour?" he asked slowly, not sure himself where he wanted to go here or why.

"Yes," the angel replied.

"Is she... still in love with Troubadour?"

She grinned down at him. "No," she replied breathlessly.

A sudden thought struck him, and he kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner. Here it was, the answer to a question he had asked Urd before, had been wondering about for a year with no result. Now...

He looked up at the angel. "Does Urd think Belldandy's coming back?"

Elegance arched an eyebrow. "No."

"Why?!"

"Sorry, you're all out of questions," Elegance replied. "And even if you weren't, that's not a yes or no..."

She started to float away, and Keiichi reached out to grab her arm, watching in amazement as his hand went right through her as if she were nothing but light and shadow. The angel smiled down at him.

"Now, now," she said. "Just as you ask me to keep your secrets, I am bound to keep those of my mistress. You would not begrudge her her secrets even as you fashion your own, would you?"

"This is different," he gasped.

She shook her head. "It's no different. We all keep our secrets for reasons we believe best. She keeps this one for her own reasons." She saw the look on his face and her smile fell. "Oh, don't be like that. She doesn't keep secrets out of malice. If anything, it's the opposite."

"And that makes it okay?" he asked.

The angel shrugged. "Does it make it wrong?"

He thought on this as Elegance moved downward, brushing her fingers against his face. He nearly flinched at the touch, the feeling of a warm breeze crossing his skin. "You trust my mistress. That trust has paid off before, has it not?"

"You have no idea how much," he replied, shuddering as memories of Kobura Island floated to the surface.

"My mistress will never betray you, Keiichi," she whispered. "And neither will I." She floated downward and disappeared within him as she remerged with his soul.

He took a breath. "Dammit," he whispered.

888

Peorth opened her eyes and blinked up at the face of the man whose gaze met her.

"Bonjour," she said with a smile and a yawn. She sat up and stretched before checking her face with her fingers, sighing in relief at finding absolutely nothing there.

"Yep," Keiichi confirmed. "You're clean."

"Are you sure?" she asked, offering a sly grin. "Did you check _everywhere_?"

"Everywhere I didn't have to undress," he confirmed deadpan.

She hopped to her feet and turned to him. "I trust Gorgeous Rose was not too demanding of your time?"

"Oh," Keiichi said, holding a hand up. "She was a perfect lady."

"Of course she was," Peorth told him. She started for the door. "If you'll excuse me, I think I'd like to read the paper and have a little breakfast."

Keiichi watched her go and grinned before calling out. "Kyle Busch won."

"Oh, Dieu merci," she gasped before catching herself and turning to him. "Oh... um... who?"

He turned and suddenly his grin fell from his face. Urd was standing behind him, World of Elegance floating next to her, her hand covering her lips as she whispered into her mistress's ear.

The goddess grinned evilly as Elegance spoke. "Oh, really?" Urd asked.

"What?" Keiichi asked, suddenly alarmed. "What, really?"

Urd met his gaze, her smile practically exploding. "Well, well, well..."

The man swallowed nervously. Did it really take all of five seconds for Elegance to betray him? Really? Five seconds? That was the best he could have hoped for?

"Keiichi," Urd said with a grin as she walked toward him. She put her hands on his shoulders and squeezed as she shook her head, her eyes alight with mirth. "Peorth's into NASCAR? Seriously?! Do you have any idea how much _fun_ I'm going to have with that?!"

"Um... yeah," Keiichi replied. "I thought you'd like that."

Elegance whispered something else into her ear, and the goddess covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. "And she's a _woo-girl?!_ Absolutely _fabulous!_"

She walked past him toward the door. Keiichi followed her with his eyes and watched World of Elegance blow him a kiss and wink at him before disappearing.

He smiled and chuckled to himself before starting for the kitchen himself.

**Author's Notes:**

Gorgeous Rose was inspired by a Geico commercial, and her initial scene is taken directly from one.


	22. Shine Where You Stand

AMG and FMP aren't mine. I'd like to give a special thanks to WillZ for his help as my prereader on this fic.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 22**

**Shine Where You Stand**

"If she kept it a secret, and you were asleep at the time, then how do you know so much about it?" Belldandy asked with a sweet smile tainted by an almost accusatory tone.

Urd blinked, noticing not for the first time this morning the harder edge in Belldandy's behavior today. It was as if having time to sleep on it and think had finally given her the resolve to detest Urd for what she had done. If so, Urd was prepared to accept that. She had been waiting for it for seven years, after all.

She sipped her tea before answering the question. "Elegance kept the secret until it was no longer necessary to do so," she said simply. "And as for the rest of it... well... you spend seven years with the same person, you learn things."

"I see," Belldandy replied with the same smile. "Breakfast?"

"No, thank you," Urd told her, starting to feel very uncomfortable. "How about I just skip ahead a bit..."

"Nothing else happened that you would like to share?" Belldandy asked with an arched eyebrow.

Urd met her gaze and grit her teeth angrily. "I don't remember a whole lot about the restaurant yesterday," she bit out. "But I'm willing to bet you're just a little curious about why Keiichi looked at you as if you were Hild-incarnate."

Belldandy flinched. That nugget had been pulling at her mind quite a bit in fact.

The older sister glared at her, waiting for her to speak. Belldandy turned away and bit her lip anxiously.

"That's what I thought," Urd said quietly. "I'm building up to it. I don't want to hurt you, Sis. I've done enough of that. But I have seven more years to tell you about. Any time you want to stop, just give the word." She rose to her feet.

Belldandy turned to her in surprise.

"Because one thing I will _not_ do," Urd hissed at her. "Is feel guilty about being with him! Not after everything we've been through! So you can give the passive-aggressive crap a rest!"

The younger Norn shot to her feet and planted her palms on the table. "Then tell me how I'm supposed to feel, Neesan!" she cried, tears in her eyes. "_Please_ tell me! Because I swear to you I have no idea. But I feel all these different things, and they all pull my soul in different directions! Part of me wants to hate you, and part of me wants to feel joy for you! Part of me wants to leave right now and never return and another believes I should..." She clammed up suddenly.

Too suddenly.

Urd's eyes went wide. She sat back down and blinked, as if trying to shake stars out of her eyes.

"Wow," she said. Belldandy looked down at her, hoping that her sister hadn't conjured the meaning of her missing words.

Urd shook her head and bit her lip hard to keep from letting an incredulous laugh escape. She looked down at the table and wondered if she shouldn't just let it die, but this was Urd, and Urd didn't back down... especially where her family was concerned.

"You want to take him from me," she whispered. She swallowed dryly, not meeting her sister's gaze.

The way the statement was worded damned Belldandy... because she couldn't say no. If Urd had accused her of _intending_ to take him or _planning_ to take him, she could have denied it. But truth be told, she did _want_ Keiichi back. Knowing he wouldn't come to her, knowing it was a futile thought didn't change the desire.

Urd suddenly laughed, startling Belldandy.

"Neesan?" she whispered, not sure where the steady ground was and so was unwilling to take a step in any direction.

The older Norn shook her head as the laugh trailed off. "What goes around comes around," she noted softly to herself.

_Seven years ago..._

It wasn't his fault, but Keiichi felt an overwhelming urge to take the hit for their fall anyway. So after his dance partner climbed off him, he sheepishly scratched the back of his head and said, "Sorry."

Sayoko Mishima looked down at the two of them and shook her head in a mixture of disappointment and amusement. "It's all right, Keiichi. Some of us were born with grace and some of us just have to work at it." She said this last part with her gaze seated firmly on the boy's dance partner, who was staring down at the floor, embarrassed and a little miffed that she was being made to feel this way in her own office.

"Gomen nasai," Teletha whispered. "I've never been very graceful."

Sayoko checked her watch. "We're just about done anyway," she said. "Keiichi, you think you got it down now?"

"I think I can muddle through," the boy told her as he rose to his feet. In truth, he was pretty confident. In the three weeks Sayoko had been teaching him to dance, he hadn't actually caused a stumble or fall in two. He was feeling a little bad for poor Teletha, however. When she heard Keiichi was getting dance lessons, she all but begged to be included. Apparently, it wasn't her first attempt at learning.

She didn't let her disappointment show, however, rising to her feet and brushing the dust off her suit. "Excellent," she said. "Then it sounds like you're all set to take Urd out."

"Urd?!" Sayoko cried in complete shock. "Are you telling me this is all been in preparation to take Urd out on a date?!"

"It's not like that!" Keiichi cried, holding his hands up as if to ward off an approaching car. "She's getting that award tomorrow, and I wanted to..."

"Sweep her off her feet?" Sayoko finished with a predatory smile.

"I think it's sweet," Teletha told her.

"It's not sweet!" Keiichi told them both. "Urd's done a lot for me, and I just want to make sure she has a good time. This is a very big deal for her!"

"Yes, it is," Teletha agreed. "And the limo's all set, by the way. I told Urd I'd send it by around six. It'll meet you at the hangar at five-thirty."

"Awesome," Keiichi replied. He felt a cold chill run up his back and turned to find Sayoko grinning evilly. He sighed. "What will it take for you not to tell her?" he asked in defeat.

She led him out of the office and toward the elevator as she contemplated a fair trade. The elevator doors closed, and she turned to him. "A confession," she told him.

"Uh oh," he muttered.

"As much as you and she tried to hide it, we both know Belldandy was something... different," she said. "A magician, a genie, I don't know. But if she and Urd are sisters, then that means Urd is the same way, right?"

Keiichi didn't say anything.

"Belldandy isn't in California, is she?" Sayoko asked. She arched an eyebrow. "You don't have to tell me where, just that I'm right."

He bit his lip. "Yeah, you're right."

The elevator bell rang, and the doors opened, revealing Sayoko's floor. She stood in the doorway, preventing the doors from closing and turned to him.

"I don't mind losing, Keiichi," she told him. "As long as I can lose to something I never stood a chance of beating to begin with. As for you and Urd..."

"There is no me and Urd," he defended.

She grinned. "As for you and Urd," she repeated. "She's helped me a lot too, so I'll keep your little surprise a secret. Just make sure you have... um... preparations in hand." She patted her emerging baby bump in emphasis and turned to leave.

Keiichi watched her go in shock. "That's not goi..."

The elevator doors closing cut him off.

"... Dammit!" he huffed. Why did everyone think he was trying to get into Urd's pants?

Not that there weren't very good reasons for a man to want to. Having seen the goddess without them, he knew first-hand that...

_Stop._

... the Norn wasn't just drop-dead gorgeous...

_Rough air ahead..._

... every part of her seemed to...

_You're in for some chop!_

The elevator bell snapped him awake. He cleared his throat sheepishly as the doors opened, and he stepped outside. He walked out of Whispers headquarters and mounted his Beemer, pausing as the engine rumbled beneath him.

_You shouldn't think of her like that_, he thought. _It's not right. She's Belldandy's sister._

_Yeah, her smok'n hot sister_, the cro-magnon part of his mind replied. _It's not cheating to admire another woman's physical beauty..._

He checked his watch. He didn't have time for this internal debate right now. It was one o'clock. In just over four hours he had to be dressed and ready to go, and he still had a bunch of things to do before then.

_You can still back out,_ a part of him said. _If you're having second thoughts on this..._

_On what?!_ he argued back.

_You're not just attracted to her physically, you know,_ his mind pointed out. _For the last two years or so... she's been your goddess._

He let out the clutch and gave the bike some gas.

_Come on, Morisato,_ the voice said. _If you can't talk to yourself, who can you talk to?_

888

It was four o'clock when Sayoko stepped through the front door. She dropped her bag on the kitchen counter and opened the cupboard, wondering if there were some saltines she could snack on. Her increasing hunger was tempered by her bouts of nausea, making her recent days a thoroughly unfulfilling rollercoaster of peckishness and unsettled stomachs.

She looked in the living room and saw Peorth lounging there, a manga in her hands as she read intently.

"Good afternoon, Peorth kun," she greeted.

"How was work, Sayoko?" Peorth replied, her eyes not leaving the manga.

"Illuminating," she responded simply. "What are you doing?"

"Studying."

"I see," Sayoko said. "Where's Keiichi?" she asked innocently, taking a bit out of a cracker and chewing thoughtfully.

"He's flying tonight," Peorth told her. "Some tuna fishermen are missing off the coast or something."

"Ah," Sayoko said, suspecting that Keiichi might use that to cover his tracks. "I think I'll go see a movie tonight then." She stepped down the hallway and heard Urd in the bath. Knocking on the door, she slid it aside and stepped in.

Urd looked up from her lounging and smiled. "Hey, Sayoko," she greeted.

"Urd," Sayoko said with a grin. "Big night, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so," the goddess replied, stretching luxuriously in the tub. "Never won something before. Should be a hoot."

"Do you have a speech ready?"

"A speech?" Urd asked, blinking in sudden realization.

"Well, if you win something, you usually give a speech, right?"

"Oh! Oh... yeah... um... of course!"

"Teletha said you're riding in style tonight," Sayoko went on, gently prodding for more information. "Limo, the works."

"Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal," Urd told her with no humility whatsoever.

"Would you like some advice?"

The goddess shrugged. "Sure."

"If the opportunity arises, try dancing." With that, she slid the door open and stepped out again.

Urd arched an eyebrow as the door closed. Dancing? Who the hell was _she_ going to dance with? She leaned back against the side of the tub and closed her eyes, trying to suppress the butterflies in her stomach. She had never been nervous about things before. Maybe this time she was just skittish because she was being seen in a positive light. She kind of wanted to stretch that out as long as possible.

It was a shame Keiichi wasn't around. She could have used a sounding board or just a man's perspective on the dress she was going to wear.

World of Elegance floated over her and looked down with a smile, her head cocked to one side.

"Because he's a guy, and he'll tell me if it's sexy," Urd answered her question.

The angel rested her chin in her hand and stared at her mistress.

"Why would I have to impress him?" Urd asked. "He's not even going to be there. I just want to look especially good tonight."

Elegance grinned and nodded in agreement.

Urd looked at her in surprise. "No, I don't intend to bring a guy home," she said. "Can you imagine the conniptions the System Force would have? The only guy I _could_ bring home is Keiichi, and..." She broke the thought off before it could go further.

The angel floated downward until their faces were inches apart. She arched an eyebrow.

The goddess looked away. Elegance pressed further.

"Okay, fine," she finally gave up. "I've thought about it, all right? But not in a scheming, planning way... Just a... wouldn't-it-be-kinda-nice... kinda way..."

Elegance moved back and sat on the far edge of the tub. She held a finger up and made a point.

Urd sighed. "Yes, of course I know he didn't sleep with Peorth, I was just... pissed..."

The angel cocked her head, a curious expression on her face.

"Because she _can_ be blatant and I can't," Urd sighed. "Because she doesn't even feel those things yet she can act as if she does, and I..."

The angel floated up and touched her hand. She gave her mistress some brutal advice.

"'Tell him,' huh?" Urd whispered. "He's still hung up on Belldandy."

Elegance cocked her head.

"Yes, he is," Urd affirmed. "There are some areas maybe where his resolve is starting to weaken, but deep in his heart... he loves Belldandy."

The angel rose up and asked a question.

"I don't know," Urd answered, holding her hand up in a fist. "Probably about this big... but he used to smoke, so it might be..."

Elegance waved her hands irritably.

"Oh, you meant metaphorically," Urd concluded, rolling her eyes. "I don't know, Elegance, just how big is Keiichi's heart?" she sighed tiredly.

The angel answered her, and Urd stared at her. Elegance stared back, hoping that her mistress would begin to get it, to understand that love wasn't something that could displaced by love for someone else.

"His heart... is pretty big," Urd relented quietly. She looked down at the water. "You know," she said quietly. "When I was paralyzed... it was kind of nice to know I could trust him that completely."

Elegance laid down on her left side next to her mistress, balancing on the edge of the tub as she listened.

"I actually... just for a few moments... pretended we were lovers," Urd told her. "That his caring for me... undressing me... were acts of love. And I don't mean sexually... well... not completely, anyway. Just that... I could bare myself to him, and it was natural to do it. Because he loved me and I..."

The angel looked at her in pity. She blinked.

"I can't," Urd replied.

Elegance pleaded with her again.

"No, I said I can't," Urd bit out. "What happens if I do? What if I did go to him and tell him that I have these feelings? What then, huh?"

Her angel rose from her perch and faced her.

"Okay, smartass," Urd said. "So what _does_ happen if I don't? The sky falls?"

Elegance answered and turned away with a sniff, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Urd's eye twitched at her angels final answer. She leaned back in the tub again.

"'Nothing,' huh?"

888

Keiichi looked at himself in the Aeronautics Club office mirror and adjusted the bow tie. Ho Chi had insisted on doing an actual bow tie rather than a clip on and had spent an hour of Keiichi's life teaching him to tie it properly. He had to admit, it did complete the tuxedo's look. He was wearing a tuxedo instead of pretending to wear a tuxedo, something the tailor had gone on and on about.

He adjusted the collar and nodded, wishing he had thought to get a haircut today. The boy turned as Jiroo opened the door and came into the office followed by Andy Z, who was absently reading a supply list on a clipboard.

"Hey, Boss," the mechanic said. "Nice threads."

"Thanks," Keiichi said. "Heading up to Tokyo tonight. What are you guys doing?"

"Oh," Jiroo said, taking a breath. "Well, I was going to head down to the yacht club and attend a party thrown by the Duchess of Cornhole. Me and the princess of Spain kind of have an on-again, off-again thing. So I figured we'd eat some crumpets, drink thousand-dollar champagne and talk shit about poor people."

"Dude, that's awesome," Andy Z said, his eyes not leaving the clipboard. "Can I come?"

Jiroo looked at him and shook his head in amazement. "That was a joke, you retard."

Keiichi grinned at the byplay and shook his head.

"Naw, me and the guys are going to the Propwash and get hammered," Jiroo told him. He shrugged. "And you know... senior year... thought maybe I'd take a run at one of the tower bunnies."

"They don't like men," Andy commented, his eyes still on the clipboard.

"They don't like _you,_" both Keiichi and Jiroo corrected in unison.

"Well," Keiichi said, picking up a bouquet of roses and a pamphlet off his desk. "I need to jet. Something I gotta do on the way out."

"Good luck, Boss," Jiroo told him as he walked out. As soon as the door shut, he snapped his fingers and grimaced. "Dammit!" He made to go after him, but stopped. "Aw, screw it," he said. He turned to the other mechanic. "Hey, dumb shit. I'm not going to be here next week. Could you let the boss know someone brought in his tool bag today?"

Andy Z nodded, not even hearing the request.

888

Keiichi climbed the maintenance stand and dropped into the Shinden's cockpit. "Hey, Shinden," he said, sealing the canopy. "How you feeling today?"

No answer.

The pilot licked his lips and brought the pamphlet out. "I want to show you something," he said. "I found this online. It's called 'Project Warbird.' It's where collectors who have... um... _legacy_ fighters like you get together and dogfight at air shows, showing people how it really was." He held the pamphlet up to her heads up display. "I thought... maybe this might help."

_You don't get it,_ he heard.

He sighed in frustration. "Look, it's air combat, just like the real thing!"

_Just like the real thing?!_ she snapped at him, causing him to blink in surprise. _You really think that?! You think a bunch of kids flying around shooting paint at each other is what it was really like?! You think that's what this is about?!_

"No, I just..."

_Sixty-seven years ago, my BROTHERS AND SISTERS were packed with explosives and sent hurtling into battleships to try to head off the inevitable for just ONE MORE DAY!_ she cried. _I was supposed to SAVE the Empire!_ _My siblings fought to defend it! They DIED defending it!_ _They were flown for a higher purpose! By samurai! I'm flown by a kid, doing... doing tricks..._ She broke off, and Keiichi could hear the airplane actually sobbing. _Like a dog..._

Keiichi swallowed, embarrassed for both of them. He could hear the utter grief and despair in her.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I didn't mean it like that." He thought for a moment before trying again. "You once told me that you had a destiny. I still think you do."

_My destiny's over_, the plane told him. _Just scrap me and start over._

"I'm not going to scrap you," he said. "There's too much good you can still do." He didn't wait for a reply, popping the canopy and climbing out. He descended the maintenance stand and snatched the flowers up off the large red tool box that stood next to the aircraft and started for the door.

888

"Okay, I'm just about out of here," Urd told them as she checked her hair one last time. Her moonlight locks were worn up in an intricate pattern that took her most of an hour to do, giving her just enough time to squeeze into the strapless violet gown that was slit provocatively up her left thigh. "Anyone hear from Keiichi? Is he still out there?"

"Haven't heard from him," Sayoko said as she put on her jacket. "Guess he's still looking for tuna boats."

"Well, whoever makes dinner, could you save him some?" Urd asked.

"Sorry, going to the movies," Sayoko said.

Peorth perked up from the living room. "Chance!" she cried. She rushed past them into the kitchen.

Urd sighed. "What are you doing, Peorth?"

"Nothing," Peorth replied. "Just that with you gone and Sayoko at the movies, I thought I'd make Keiichi something nice for dinner. This way there's something warm for him to come home to." She grinned wickedly and resumed her search for a frying pan.

The Norn felt anger welling up in her. Then again, given Peorth's history of cooking, she supposed she hadn't much to worry about. "Oi," she called to the goddess. "Just try not to burn the house down, okay?"

She was a little surprised when Sayoko touched her arm and gave her a wink. The goddess watched her precede her out the door. Urd put on her shawl and followed her.

The two women walked down the temple steps together, looking up as the Whispers limo pulled up to the curb.

"Well," Sayoko said. "I hope you have a good time tonight." She smiled. "I have a feeling you will."

"You know something I don't?" Urd asked as the limo door opened.

The woman grinned at her. "Nope." She waved. "Bye."

Urd rolled her eyes and stepped into the limo. She froze at the sight that met her.

Keiichi sat in the seat across from her, decked out in a tuxedo with a bouquet of roses on his lap.

"Hey," he said, suddenly nervous again. His eyes went wide at the sight of her. "Wow... you look great."

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked with a surprised grin.

He cleared his throat and squared his shoulders. "I am your escort this evening," he told her as she took the seat across from him. He offered her the flowers, and her eyes lit up.

"My escort?" she asked. She arched an eyebrow. "You mean my date?"

"Well... if you prefer..." he said.

She crossed her legs and admired the roses. "Well... 'escort' makes it sound like I paid you..." She blinked and bit her lip. "Teletha didn't..."

"No!" he said quickly. He fidgeted. "I..." He paused and rallied a moment later. "I wanted to make sure that you had a good time tonight." He saw Urd's face light up a little more and knew he had said the right thing. "Tonight's about you, Urd. You _need_ to have a good time."

She shook her head. "I just can't get over the tux, the limo..."

"Well, Teletha helped with a few things," he said.

"This is incredible!" she said. "Ooh!" She leaned over to the small liquor cabinet and opened it. "Let's see if Teletha was stupid enough to... She was!" She sat up with a bottle of wine and a pair of glasses. "Let's have a drink," she declared as she poured.

"Heck, I'm not driving," he agreed, taking one of the glasses from her. "What should we drink to?"

She sat back in the seat and thought about it. "To Peorth cooking dinner," she said and grinned.

"Um... Okay." He clinked his glass to hers and drank.

The goddess sipped her wine, almost giddy. "Okay, be honest," she said. "Was this your idea?"

He cleared his throat. "Actually, Megumi came up with it."

_Thank you, Megumi!_

There was an awkward silence that suddenly permeated the back of the limousine. Realizing it was a long ride to Tokyo, Urd took the initiative. She leaned forward and changed seats, sitting next to him and bringing the bottle with her. She refilled his glass and smiled.

"So," she said. "What's the plan?"

"The plan?" he asked quickly.

"Well, you're not just going to drop me off at the ceremony, are you?" she purred.

"Of course not," he said.

"So I get to show you off?"

"Um... I guess so," he replied uncertainly. "I don't know why you'd want to."

"What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "Aww... I don't know," he said, suddenly wishing he hadn't said anything. "I mean we're going to see the upper crust of the underwear world. I mean the other models are probably bringing rock stars or baseball players or something..."

"Okay," she said. "Here's what we'll do! No one knows you, right? We'll say you're a..." She swirled the wine around her glass as she thought on it. She snapped her fingers. "An astronaut! No! Better! A cowboy!"

"A cowboy?!" he laughed.

"A cowboy!"

"An Asian cowboy?" he asked her incredulous.

"I got it," she said, deadly serious. "A cowboy astronaut millionaire."

"You know what?" he said. "I'm going to stick with college stunt pilot."

"Stunt pilot cowboy millionaire college student!" Urd corrected.

He laughed.

"How about plain old Keiichi?" she asked. "I like plain old Keiichi."

Keiichi smiled.

"OOH!" she suddenly cried. "'This is Keiichi,'" she said, gesturing to him. "'Navy SEAL!'"

He sighed and shook his head... but smiled regardless.

888

It wasn't the biggest event, but there were still a few fashion photographers waiting when Urd and Keiichi stepped out of the limo at the hotel. Urd, used to being on this side of the camera, smiled and grabbed Keiichi's hand.

"You know," she whispered in his ear. "Usually when this happens to me, there are more police."

"Wow, Urd," he said, blinking from the flashes. "You know you're probably going to be in the paper tomorrow."

She grinned and pulled his hand, bringing him in close, their cheeks brushing together just as a flash went off.

"For the paper," she explained. "Come on! Let's go inside."

Keiichi almost had to run after her. It was like watching a little girl run for the entrance of a toy store.

When he did finally catch up with her, she grabbed his arm again and led him into the main hall. The main conference center had been set up as a banquet hall with set tables surrounding the main stage in a large semi-circle.

"Huh," Keiichi remarked. "I wonder where we sit."

"Urd! Keiichi! Over here!" They turned and found Teletha waving to them from a table near the front.

"Teletha!" Urd squealed as she stepped forward and hugged the CEO. The lingerie mogul was dressed in a silver sequined gown that sparkled when she moved. It was so flashy that Keiichi didn't notice the blond man standing next to her until Urd mentioned him. "Who's your date?"

Teletha waved the idea aside. "Oh! He's not my date! He's my bodyguard."

"Bodyguard?" Urd asked. "Are you getting threats or something?"

"Oh, no!" Teletha squeaked again. She laughed and leaned forward, her tone suddenly going serious. "If you pay for a date, you're a slut," she said. "If you pay for a bodyguard, you're important."

"Ah," Urd said.

"Kurz Weber," the bigger man introduced, holding his hand out to Keiichi.

"Keiichi Morisato," Keiichi returned. "And this is Urd."

"Oh, I know!" Kurz told him, taking the goddess's hand. "I'm an avid collector of all your work."

Urd's hand went to her chest. "I am both flattered and creeped out! Thank you!"

"Anytime!"

"Teletha!" a woman's voice carried over to them. Urd saw the CEO's face pinch and the fight it took for her to plaster a smile onto it instead.

She whirled around. "Chidori san!" she cried.

The blue-haired woman came forward with a bright, faked smile. "It's so good that you were able to make it! I know cab fare is so expensive nowadays!"

Teletha laughed, her hand on her chest. "Oh, Chidori san! I love your dress! My office has curtains just like it!"

"Wow," Keiichi whispered. "They went straight to the catty, didn't they?"

"I've seen them go on like this for half an hour," Urd whispered back.

Teletha's gaze broke from Chidori and caught the man in the tuxedo behind her. "Sagara san," she said in greeting.

Sagara nodded in greeting. "Tessatarossa san."

Chidori saw Keiichi and made the wrong connection. "Is this your boyfriend?" she asked. "He's cute."

Teletha turned red. "Oh! No! He's not my boyfriend! He's Urd's boyfriend!"

"Oh?" Chidori asked, turning her smile to Urd and Keiichi. She held her hand out, and Keiichi took it. "I'm Kaname Chidori, president of Chidori's Secret."

"Keiichi Morisato," he said.

"So what do you do, Morisato san?" Chidori asked him pointedly.

"I'm a cowboy astronaut millionaire," he announced.

Urd, who had poured herself a glass of water, suddenly choked on her drink and started to laugh.

"Well," Chidori said. "Isn't that... nice?" There was an awkward silence, followed by. "Excuse us."

Teletha watched Sagara and Chidori walk off and growled. "Ooh! I cannot _wait_ until I have enough money to take over her company and run it into the ground!"

"She's hot!" Kurz piped in.

"Weber san, you're not helping!"

888

Peorth shook her caboose from side to side as she mixed six eggs with some sugar and flour, a puffy chef's hat balanced precariously on her head. She sang along with the radio as she simultaneously cooked and plotted.

The stars had smiled on her. In the words of her favorite movie, "The Emperor has made a critical error, and the time for our attack has come."

With Sayoko out at the movies and Urd tied up with her award, now was the time to strike. At any time, Keiichi was going to walk through the door, and depending on his state of mind, there was literally no scenario she could think of where she _didn't_ get to second base tonight.

But it would take planning, flexibility and the resolve to take advantage of any advantage that presented itself. It was time to seal the deal, and whether she was giving him a joyful kiss after hearing he helped save those idiot fishermen or gently comforting him after a fruitless search, Keiichi Morisato's world was going to be completely reshaped by the time the sun came up tomorrow.

She heard the front door open and close, and her eyes lit up. Dinner was nowhere near ready, which meant she was going to have to go the "Oh, you caught me trying to surprise you with dinner! Now I'm a complete mess with flour powdered cutely on my nose!" route.

The goddess whirled around and clapped her hands on her face in surprise. "Oh, Keiichi! I didn't expect you ho..." She broke off, and her eyes went wide. "Mon Dieu..."

888

"And the recipient of this year's award for Best New Model is... Urd Morisato from Whispers!"

It was the last award they had given out, and Urd had been on pins and needles the entire time. Now that her name had been called, she had a sudden moment of not knowing what to do. It wasn't until Keiichi broke off his applause and cocked his head toward the stage that she finally got moving, rising from their table and walking regally... but quickly... up onto the stage.

The presenter handed her the statuette, a crystal representation of, ironically enough, an angel with her wings and arms spread wide. She smiled and thanked him, and then saw him make way for her at the microphone... and stopped smiling.

She stepped forward and put on a smile for the crowd, wishing again that Teletha had warned her about having to say something and vowing to take swift and blinding revenge on her for the omission.

The goddess cleared her throat, suddenly not wanting the attention anymore. She leaned toward the microphone and licked her lips. "Um... So... I really... really... don't know what to say," she said honestly. "I mean... I've never actually _won_ something before... I mean if I was in trouble with the Al... er... the Authorities... I'd have that down pat, but this..." The crowd laughed at the joke, not realizing how utterly true it was.

"So, I guess I shouldn't waste your time," she went on. "I'm just going to... well... first I'm going to thank Teletha." She turned to the CEO. "I don't have a whole lot of friends," she went on. "But I'm glad you're one of the few I _do_ have. Thanks."

Teletha blushed, and the crowd applauded.

"The other person I need to thank is my date tonight," Urd went on. "Keiichi Morisato." She paused and locked eyes with him. "Ever since I came to Japan... you've been there for me... and... I don't think you've ever realized what kind of impact you've had on my life."

Keiichi blinked as Urd paused, her eyes not leaving his. She held the statuette up and bit her lip. "Thank you," she whispered, the microphone carrying the words to him despite their softness.

There were a few "aww's" from the crowd.

"That's all I want to say right now," she finished quietly before starting down the stairs. The audience applauded, and Teletha stood up, hugging the goddess as she rejoined them at their table.

Keiichi could barely meet her eyes as she sat down. "Nice speech," he said.

"Thanks," she said, looking at the table top, pretending to examine her award as the emcee announced the end of the formal ceremony. As the noise level rose from people chit-chatting, Teletha turned to them both.

"And that's about it," she said. "They'll play music for dancing and a lot of people will network for awhile." She sighed in obvious disappointment. "Some will get rooms here at the hotel..." She sighed again dramatically. "But I think I'll be going home."

Kurz leaned over to her and held up a hotel room key. He grinned and gave her a wink.

Teletha sighed. "Bring the car around, Weber san."

It was the German's turn to sigh as he stood up and started for the entrance.

"So..." Urd said, still not facing Keiichi. "I guess we should go too, huh?"

Keiichi looked over, trying to see her eyes, but only being able to glance at the back of her neck and the few moonlit silver hairs that fell over the skin there. Suddenly, inspired, he reached out and grabbed her hand.

"Or," he said, rising to his feet. "We can dance for awhile."

Urd gave him an "are you kidding?" look. "Since when did _you_ learn to dance?"

"Well," he replied. "Someone once told me the key of getting over your fear of something is learning how to do it." He gave her a gentle pull toward the dance floor. "Come on." He sensed Urd's hesitancy and smiled. "You scared?"

She gave him an incredulous look. "Scared?"

He spread his arms out casually and replied. "Just say'n."

"Lead the way," she responded, accepting the challenge.

She smirked, already knowing this equation. Keiichi was going to spend the next two minutes trying to figure out where to put his hands, then after staring down at his feet for another three, he'll tentatively try to lead her in a little box dance...

Her breath left her as he took her right hand in his left and put his right hand on her waist. Her eyes went wide as he started to move in a very competent waltz.

_Oh, my God, I think he's leading!_ she thought.

She laughed. "You can dance!"

"Been practicing for three weeks," he told her confidentially. "Wasn't about to go through all that and not use it."

"Keiichi Morisato, you've been holding out on me," she accused.

"A little," he said, glad to see her mood improving.

"So who taught you?" she asked as they continued to dance. It was some Beyonce song Urd had never heard before, but she made a mental note to find a CD next time she was out.

"Sayoko," he told her.

"Teletha, Sayoko," she breathed. "Is there anyone who _wasn't_ part of this?"

Keiichi gave it two beats before they both answered in unison.

"Peorth."

They danced through the song, and a little of that old nervous college student came back into his voice. "So... am I doing okay?"

"You're doing great," she replied softly. The song ended, and the King came on a moment later.

_Wise men say... only fools rush in..._

_But I... can't... help... falling in love... with you..._

Urd moved a little closer, closing her eyes and holding him just a little tighter as she moved with the music.

_Shall I stay?_

_Would it be a sin?_

_If I... can't... help... falling in love... with you..._

For a moment, there weren't five hundred people around them. It was just the two of them, a mortal boy and a goddess, a lingerie model and her date, a woman and her boyfriend.

_I can pretend,_ she thought. _Like before. Just for a few minutes._

_Take my hand... take my whole life too..._

_For I... can't... help... falling in love... with you..._

She decided to risk looking into his eyes and regretted it a moment later. It was too much for her. The music, the warmth of his hands and now his gaze... It was too much. Of course her sister had fallen in love with him. She never stood a chance.

"Keiichi," she said quietly. "Um..."

"Yeah?" he prompted softly.

_I have to tell him,_ she thought.

"Excuse me!" she said quickly, breaking away and rushing toward the bathroom.

Keiichi stood there in the middle of the dance floor and blinked in puzzlement.

888

Urd grabbed the edge of the bathroom sink and took a deep breath before taking a long, hard look at herself.

_I have to tell him,_ she thought.

_Your sister will hate you until the day you die,_ was the response. _And that's IF he even feels something remotely close to what you do._

She turned on the water and splashed some on her face.

_This is stupid,_ she thought. _I'm a love goddess. I don't hide in the bathroom like a fourteen-year-old girl at a Christmas dance._

"What the Hell is wrong with me?" she gasped out.

"Urd san?"

She turned and found Teletha standing there.

"Are you okay?"

"You're still here?"

The CEO rolled her eyes. "Weber san is trying the 'the car has broken down, Ma'am,' ruse, and I'm debating it."

"Really?" Urd asked, surprised. "I thought you were in love with that Sagara guy."

Teletha sighed. "I am. I'm wondering if perhaps just giving up is the way to go. 'If you can't be with the one you love...'"

"'... love the one you're with,'" Urd finished.

"And Weber san seems... nice," she noted uncertainly. "And I haven't had any action in a _very_ long time..."

Urd said nothing.

"What do you think I should do?" Teletha asked her.

"You love Sagara?"

"Well... yes," she sighed.

Urd's hands curled into fists. "So what you're saying is you'd rather deny what you feel in your heart... just turn away from it... instead of doing something difficult?"

"I... I can't just... _tell him_!"

A tear came to Urd's eye. "Teletha, I can't tell you what will happen if you tell Sagara how you feel," she said honestly. "But I can tell you for a fact what will happen if you don't."

"What?"

She turned to her friend, her eyes hardened with resolve. "Nothing," she said.

888

Urd opened the bathroom door and marched toward their table. As she searched for Keiichi in the crowd, World of Elegance's face appeared in her mind's eye with an incredulous look on her face.

"Yeah," she muttered quietly. "I'm gonna tell him."

"Urd! Over here!"

She turned and saw Keiichi walking toward her.

Her resolve suddenly fled, and she bit her lip. World of Elegance gave her a stern glance.

"I'm still gonna tell him," she whispered. "But not here in public. I'll tell him in the limo."

888

Forty-five minutes later, the two of them were sitting in the back of the limousine heading toward Nekomi, and in that entire time, Urd hadn't said two words, let alone the three she had been considering speaking.

Keiichi was starting to think he had screwed up somewhere but was too uncertain to bring it up. Urd, meanwhile, sat quietly, looking out the window while sipping a glass of champagne.

While she could avoid Keiichi's eyes easily enough, it was harder to avoid the cold glare of her angel, who was staring at her in her mind's eye, tapping her finger against her folded arms expectantly.

_What?_ Urd demanded. _It's not the right time._

World of Elegance gave her a disgusted look.

_Because!_ Urd thought back. _Telling him in the backseat of a car?! Tacky!_

The angel grit her teeth in frustration.

_No, it's not perfect!_ Urd replied. _Why would you say it's perfect?! It's a horrible set up!_

Elegance held a hand up and snapped her fingers.

888

Urd suddenly turned to him. "Keiichi, I'm in love with you!" she blurted.

Keiichi looked at her in complete shock. "Wh... What?"

"I know this is coming out of nowhere," Urd said quickly. "But... the last few years... I know we've been growing closer, and somewhere along the way, I..."

"Urd... I know..."

She blinked. "What?"

He moved into the seat next to her. "I said I know," he told her softly. He swallowed nervously. "I... I never..." He broke off and bit his lip. "I just couldn't let you know how I really felt... With Belldandy and..." He stopped and sighed. "I feel like such an asshole."

"Keiichi..." she breathed. "I don't want to hurt Belldandy, but I just... I can't stop feeling this way."

He looked into her eyes and moved closer. "And we shouldn't have to," he whispered.

Urd was about to breathe a quiet, "Oh, God," but Keiichi's lips brushing against hers cut her off. She closed her eyes and felt herself slowly fall toward the seat below, Keiichi's hand running up the side of her body to the zipper on the back of her gown...

888

Urd snapped out of the vision and found Keiichi still sitting in the opposite seat. Her eyes narrowed as her angel grinned at her in her mind's eye.

_Not funny,_ she bit out.

The angel shrugged her shoulders.

_There's nothing wrong with it, except that it's WRONG!_ Urd pointed out. _You know how he is. It would freak him out, and I don't need him freaked out ten miles from home!_

888

Urd suddenly turned to him. "Keiichi, I'm in love with you!" she blurted.

He blinked in shock. "Wait... What?!" he cried.

"I know this is coming out of nowhere," Urd said quickly. "But... the last few years... I know we've been growing closer, and somewhere along the way, I..."

"Urd..." he gasped, shaking his head. "Oh, my goddess, I..." He slumped in his seat, his hand going to his forehead.

"I don't want to hurt Belldandy," she said, "But at the same time, I can't stop feeling this way..."

"Well, you know what would probably hurt Belldandy just a little bit?" he asked. "This. This would probably hurt her just a freaking _smidgen!_" he told her.

"Keiichi..."

"Stop the car!" he called to the driver. He paused before looking up at her with devastated eyes. "Urd... we're friends, and I care about you... But it might be better if we spent some time apart..."

He opened the door and stepped out, closing the door behind him. Urd went to the window and saw him standing there on the side of the highway, the jacket of his tuxedo slung over his shoulder as he started to walk despondently into the night.

Oh, and then it started to rain.

Nice.

888

World of Elegance looked at her as if the goddess had just told her fire couldn't melt steel.

Urd said nothing, but looked a little sheepish. _It could happen..._

The angel rubbed her temples. Rallying, she pointed her finger at what Urd presumed was Keiichi's direction.

_No! Not yet! Not ready! Later! When we get out of the car, okay?!_

Elegance replied by trying to pull her hair out.

_Hey! If you think the suspense is bad for you, just think about what it's doing to me!_ Urd retorted. _I'm dying over here!_

"Hey, Urd?"

"HUH!? WHAT?!" Urd cried, suddenly turning toward Keiichi.

He looked at her as if she were a dangerous psycho he came upon on accident. "Are... you okay?"

"Yeah," she said, holding her statuette closer to her chest as if it were a crucifix to ward off a werewolf. "I'm just... You know, I'm..."

He looked at her in concern.

She saw the look and took a breath. "I'm sorry," she said. "You've done so much for me tonight, and I'm acting like a basketcase."

"Is everything all right?" he asked.

"Everything is wonderful," she told him honestly. She shook her head.

Before she could say more, the limo rolled to a stop outside the temple.

"We're home," Keiichi told her.

"Yeah," she agreed.

They were silent for a moment. After an awkward pause, Keiichi opened the door and started outside.

"Keiichi!"

He turned and stuck his head back in. "Yeah?"

Urd shook her head. "Nothing."

"Oh... Okay." His head disappeared again. Urd bit her arm and screamed silently in exasperation.

She grabbed her statuette and climbed out of the limo, thoroughly disgusted with herself and her lack of backbone. Didn't she spend the first three years on Earth getting on Keiichi's case for the exact same thing?! How many times had she told him to man up and take Belldandy to a hotel?! How many times had she told him that a real man would just tell Belldandy how he feels?!

_My God, how far have I fallen?_

He was waiting for her, offering a hand to her as she climbed out of the limo. Together, they walked up the steps to the torii gate.

_Tell him,_ her mind... or Elegance... nagged.

They passed under the gate together and toward the front steps.

_Tell him!_

The wooden steps creaked as they walked up toward the front door.

_Tell him!_

They stopped as Keiichi fished his keys out of his pocket.

It was about to end, their first and possibly only date. Once they crossed that threshold, it was over.

_This is it,_ her heart told her. _Right here. Your entire life can change direction FOREVER, and all you have to do is say three words. That's all it takes. Even if he doesn't share those feelings, he'll have to acknowledge them. It'll be out in the light, and as long as it has light, it can grow. Tell him._

"Keiichi..."

"Yeah?" he said, his keys in his hand.

She took a breath and patted the statuette with her free hand. "There's... um... something I need to talk about with you..."

"Okay," he said with a nod. "What's up?"

"It's... It's kind of big," she confessed. "And I don't know... how I should tell you this..."

He waited for her to continue.

"It's just that... um..."

"Urd."

"Yeah?" she said, looking into his eyes.

"I don't know what's bothering you," he said gently. "But I've never seen you like this before. I don't know what's happened, but... Whatever it is, it can't be _that_ bad."

"Oh, it's bad, Keiichi," she admitted with a sigh.

"Okay," he said with a comforting smile. "So how about this? Let's put our stuff inside, get a bottle of sake and go up on the roof. You can tell me all about it, and we'll figure it out, okay?"

_Perfect!_ she thought. _Absolutely perfect! He and I, in our special place on the roof with a bottle of sake under the stars! It's like it's out of a bad romance manga! Destiny is setting me up for the slam dunk!_

She smiled. "That sounds great," she said.

Keiichi unlocked the front door and pushed it open. "Okay," he said. "You get the sake, I'll get the ladder out of the..."

He froze, the rest of the sentence dead on his lips.

Urd stepped in next to him. "Keiichi? What is it?"

Keiichi stared at Peorth and the other woman rising from the kitchen table.

"Belldandy?" he gasped quietly.

The middle Norn, arrayed in the same blue and white dress she wore the day she disappeared, smiled at him and wiped a tear from her eye.

"Keiichi san!"

Urd, her eyes wide in stunned disbelief, didn't feel the statuette slip from her fingers and break against the floor below.

**Author's Notes:**

This is pretty much the end of the first "season" of this fic. I move to another state in two weeks, so there probably won't be an update until sometime in February. I reckon that makes this a pretty good spot for a pause. While I'm on the road, I might be working on a one-shot fic, _Four Roses_, while the grandparents play with the kids and ignore me.

I had more reservations about writing this fic than any other I've written in AMG, but at the end of the day, I guess you readers out there decided I was NOT, in fact, a blithering idiot who hates Belldandy and has no idea what the series is about, because with only three of ten years of Keiichi and Urd's relationship told, this fic has received more than 21,000 hits and more reviews (the majority of them quite positive) than any other fic I have EVER written. When the guy who's on record for hating this story is keeping up with the chapters as they come out, I call that pretty successful. So thank you, all of you, out there who are reading these stories and letting me know how much you enjoy them.

And thank you for the people who didn't like it and dropped me a line to tell me why. With one notable exception, the people who've written to say, "I'm not big on this..." have been courteous and gave me a lot to think on. That's why I love this community so much.

Thanks again, and see you again soon.


	23. Where Shall We Shelter? Part 1

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine. Neither is FMP.

Foreword: I just couldn't stay away. "Four Roses" is still being worked, but I wanted to jump back into "Haloes," so it's on the back-burner for awhile. Special thanks to WillZ for proofing this for me.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 23**

**Where Shall We Shelter? Where Shall We Sleep? Part 1**

_"She opened a book and a box of tools,_

_Sunny came home with a mission."_

_Shawn Colvin_

_"Sunny Came Home"_

Belldandy was silent for several moments, staring at her sister across the table.

"Me?" she asked.

"You," Urd confirmed.

"_Me_?"

The older Norn nodded. "You."

Belldandy looked from side to side as if expecting someone to jump out and yell "Gotcha!" at any moment. She smiled. "You mean that it was someone who dressed like me or had the same hair..."

"I mean," Urd said quietly, "That it was you. That she looked, talked and acted... just like _you_."

The younger goddess rose from her seat and stepped to the sink. "So... this... whoever-she-was... tried to impersonate me." She turned to Urd and continued. "And Keiichi..." She smiled. "... who knows me better than anyone... discovered the ruse. You confessed your love to him, and..."

"Actually," Urd began in embarrassment. "We bought it."

Belldandy's eyes went wide. "What?"

Urd licked her lips and took a breath. "It was _you_, Sis," she reiterated. "Not a demon in a wig!" She reached out and took her hand. "She... She _felt_ like you... It was _your_ voice! Your eyes!" She shook her head. "Why do you think Keiichi and I were so suspicious of you? There was _no other way to know_ _the difference!_"

She paused. "Okay, we're getting ahead of ourselves again. From the top..."

_Seven years ago..._

The sound of the statuette breaking against the polished wood floor snapped Urd out of her amazement at seeing her sister standing there. On reflex, she dropped to her knees to pick up the pieces and suddenly found Belldandy kneeling next to her, helping her.

"I'm sorry," the recently freed goddess said sheepishly. "It looks like its little wing is broken." She handed the crystal wing to Urd, who looked at her dumbfounded.

"How?" Keiichi breathed. "I mean... Hild... She..." He looked up at Peorth. "Did you do this?"

Peorth quickly shook her head, grinning from ear to ear. "Non," she said. "She showed up here a few hours ago and asked for you."

Kneeling on the floor, Urd listened carefully as she picked up pieces of her award, suddenly wondering what her sister and Peorth talked about during those few hours.

"Keiichi san?" Belldandy asked, concern in her eyes. "Are you all right? I... I know it's been years by your counting, but... I... I hope my return is... welcome."

The young man stared at her for several moments, then suddenly grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her in a bear hug. He clung tightly to her. "Thank God you're home," he gasped out.

Belldandy smiled and rested her hands on his back. "Keiichi san," she whispered. "I missed you so much."

Keiichi squeezed his eyes shut, his curiosity fighting with his immense relief. "What happened?" he asked quietly.

The goddess bit her lip. "I... I don't really know," she confessed. "I woke up near the river this evening and came here to find you."

Peorth watched, incredibly happy and proud of her minuscule role in the entire affair. She didn't stop smiling until Urd took her hand and started pulling her down the hall.

"Let's give them some time alone," Urd told her as she all but dragged the French goddess to her room. Pulling Peorth into her bedroom, she quickly shut the door and turned on the brunette.

"What did you tell her?" Urd whispered quietly, but urgently, to her.

Peorth, unsure whether she should assuage the other goddess's fears or exacerbate them as penalty for her rough treatment, theatrically dusted her abused arm off. "I told her nothing you would have disapproved of," she assured her, remembering why she had been doing what she had been.

Urd looked angrily at her, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Really," Peorth told her in reply to the look. "I didn't tell her how you feel about Keiichi..."

She expected Urd to once again deny it, but the Norn instead turned and ran her fingers tiredly through her hair. Peorth added it up and came to the wrong conclusion. "Mon Dieu! You didn't!" she gasped.

"No!" Urd hissed at her. "No, I didn't! Everything is fine!"

_But it came so close,_ she thought. _If I had told him..._

She shut her eyes and thanked her luck. If she had told him in the limo...

Peorth watched her and divined what had happened... or didn't happen. "I'm sorry, Urd," she whispered. She saw the Norn's angry eyes whip toward her and held her ground. "I am," she said softly. "I knew if this ended the way I hoped, you would be hurt... But Keiichi and Belldandy are together again, and you and Belldandy are sisters again. All considered, it was the best possible outcome."

"Yeah," Urd said with a nod, though she wouldn't face Peorth. "Yeah, they're together again. That's all that matters."

The other goddess watched her in growing concern. "Will you be all right?"

Urd's gaze snapped to her, and she forced a smile. "Of course! This is great!" She started pacing back and forth. "You know what it calls for? A party! A welcome home party!"

"I think," Peorth began quietly, unable to keep the sympathy from her voice. "... I think what we should do now is step back and give them a chance to find themselves again... as a couple."

The Norn nodded quickly. "Okay. Okay, we'll do that." She yawned suddenly and stretched her arms over her head. "Well, it's been a long day. I'm going to turn in."

Before Peorth could respond, Urd was out the door again, totally forgetting that they were in her bedroom to begin with.

888

He held her hand. That's all he wanted to do right now. To just feel the warmth of her hand in his and look at her.

"I can't believe it's you," he whispered.

Belldandy smiled at him. "I'm sorry I took so long," she replied.

Keiichi shook his head and chuckled at the quip. "There's so much I want to say."

"As I," she told him. "I want to hear everything! Everything that's happened! I want to know about your life."

The boy paused at her words. "It's... it's a long story," he said the familiar words.

"I'll listen as long as it takes," she promised.

Something tickled the back of his mind, but he shrugged it off and began from the day he threw Karisuma out of the house.

888

_CAW! CAW!_

Urd groaned as she opened her sticky eyes and found herself face-to-face with a large crow. The bird blinked down at her from its perch on her chest, flying off only when the goddess waved it away.

She blinked again as she sat up, the back of her hand knocking over an empty sake bottle. Reflexively, she dived after it...

Right off the roof.

The goddess cried out as her hand shot out to grab the storm gutter even as the hem of her dress caught on the gutter's corner. As she went over, she heard the dress rip and the gutter break off the side of the house in that order.

When she opened her eyes again, she once again found herself on her back, her dress looking down at her as it waved like a flag from the broken gutter on the roof.

"Son of a bitch," she whispered as she stood up. She _knew_ she should have worn a bra.

She leapt up and snagged the dress, wrapping the tattered garment she had worn in her proudest moment around her bust like a beach towel.

"Neesan?"

Urd looked up and found her sister blinking at her from the back porch.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah!" Urd replied quickly. "Just... taking my morning walk."

"Oh," Belldandy said. "I'm cooking breakfast. Would you like some?"

"Yeah, sure," Urd told her in resignation. She followed the younger goddess into the house and found soup simmering merrily on the stove. It really was just like old times...

She blinked as her eyes came to rest on something sitting on the counter. Belldandy went to the stove and stirred the soup, her own eyes going to the cookbook Urd had spotted.

Urd tried to remember the last time her sister had referenced a cookbook and came up with nothing. Belldandy had made this exact same breakfast about seven hundred times before.

"You feeling okay, Sis?" Urd asked her. It was possible there was some kind of side effect from her sealing... even though such a thing was all but unheard of.

Belldandy turned to her and smiled. "I feel wonderful, Neesan. I'm back with Keiichi san, and everything is once again as it should be!"

Urd's momentary concern vanished, squashed beneath a suddenly avalanche of bitter regret and pain.

"Yeah," she whispered, turning away. "I'm going to go take a bath."

"Breakfast will be ready in five minutes," Belldandy told her.

"I don't care," Urd whispered back to her.

She stepped into the hallway and stopped next to the phone. With Belldandy back, she realized she had a few calls to make. Snatching up the receiver she started dialing the first one.

The goddess frowned as she waited for the person at the other end to pick up. Finally...

"Hello?"

"Skuld, it's Urd," the Norn replied.

The line was silent for several moments. Then, "What do you want?" Skuld asked without warmth.

Urd grit her teeth and decided to end it quickly. "Just wanted to let you know Belldandy's back. Later."

"Wait! Wha..."

The goddess put the phone back in the cradle and lifted it again. Next call.

The phone only rang three times before Urd heard someone pick up.

"Hello! You've reached the goddess Sif! I'm afraid you've called while I'm out on assignment, but if you leave your name, number and a brief message, I'll call you back just as soon as I can! Thank you! And have a blessed day!"

The answering machine beeped, and Urd began. "Hey, Sif, it's Urd," she said. "Just wanted to let you know that... you were right. Belldandy's back. Talk to you later. Bye."

She hung up again. Her fingers tapped the receiver, knowing what her next call was supposed to be.

_No,_ she thought. _Let it be a bit longer..._

Instead, she picked up the receiver again and called a local number.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Kiyoshi, it's Urd," Urd announced. "I just wanted to let you know I'm not going to be at the hospital today."

"Oh?" the mortal girl asked. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Urd lied. "My... My sister is back in town, and I just can't come in."

Kiyoshi was silent for a moment. "Oh," she finally said. "This is... um... Keiichi san's friend?"

"Yeah," Urd confirmed. "It's Keiichi's _friend_."

"Okay," the girl said, sounding quite deflated. "Will you be in next week?"

Urd opened her mouth to say yes but froze. Would she really? Belldandy was back now. Now that she was, she could go back to what she did before, watching TV and getting wasted. She didn't have to work or volunteer or do any of those things.

"I... I don't know," she said. "I'll let you know, okay?"

"Okay. I'll see you later."

Urd hung up again, tapping the phone again.

_Woman up! Stop being such a whiny bitch and do what you've gotta do!_

She picked up the receiver and started dialing.

"Goddess Help Line, this is Epona," she heard.

"Hello," Urd said, her throat suddenly going dry. "Um... this is Urd."

"Hello, Urd. What can I do for you?"

"Um..." She licked her lips. "I'm... I'm listed as the holder of a wish by Keiichi Morisato. I need to transfer that wish ba..."

She stopped suddenly, her hand going to her mouth in grief. The goddess coughed, closed her eyes and collected herself. "I need to transfer that wish back to Belldandy."

"All right, I can do that for you," Epona's cheery voice answered. "Do I have permission to access your wish file?"

"Yeah," Urd told her.

"All right." Urd heard the clicking of a keyboard, then, "Belldandy was sealed, correct?"

"Yeah," the Norn confirmed.

"When was she released?"

"Last night," Urd said, rubbing her eyes, wishing this conversation could just be done and over with.

"Rats," Epona remarked. "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but it looks like Yggdrasil hasn't updated her status yet. The computer still shows her as sealed."

"Oh, come on!" Urd growled.

"I'm sorry, but until her status is updated in the mainframe, there's nothing I can do," Epona told her apologetically.

"Can't you just update her from there?" Urd asked.

"I'm afraid not. Yggdrasil does that automatically."

Urd sighed. "Okay, so when it does update, can you just..."

"Again, I'm afraid not," Epona told her. "We need a live voice request from you. You'll just have to call back and try again later."

_Great,_ Urd thought. _I get to do this again. That's just peachy fucking keen..._

"Thanks," she said bitterly and hung up.

Screw this. It was time for a bath...

... and some sake.

888

"So there were clues," the Belldandy of seven years later said. "You just overlooked them."

"It was an emotional time, Sis," Urd told her. "For me, it was like a dream was ending. I was waking up, and the little things, things I should have picked up on... I didn't make the connections. And Keiichi, he saw them too, but he wanted you home so _badly_ that he just..." She trailed off and sighed.

Belldandy looked down and ran her finger around the rim of her tea cup. She decided to change the subject for a moment and try to lighten the mood a little.

"I wonder what Keiichi san is doing now?" she asked quietly.

Urd bit her lip to hide a grin. "He's rather intimate with another woman right now," she answered.

Belldandy blinked at her. "What?"

The elder sister nodded. "With a young Russian girl named Verushka. She fell in love with him about a year ago, and he just can't stop seeing her..."

Belldandy looked at her in shock. "You mean... Keiichi san is _cheating_ on you?!"

"Well," Urd said with a sly smile. "I'm not sure I'd call it 'cheating.' I'd call it... 'hilarious.'"

888

_Yes! Yes! YES! FASTER!_

Keiichi sighed to himself even as he put the plane into a ninety-degree vertical climb and hit the afterburners. Only a few aircraft in the world could accelerate in a vertical climb, and Keiichi had helped design one of them. He watched the altimeter and the air speed indicator rise faster and faster.

_Oh, God, yes!_ _More! Roll me, you bastard! ROLL ME!_

Keiichi rolled the aircraft left but only because that's what today's test called for. He heard the F-40's squeals of passion in his head and winced. Why the hell did she have to react like that? The Shinden never did that. The Akilina never did that. Why did she have to act like he was being intimate with her just by flying her?

And honestly... the rough play and dirty talk made him feel weird...

It didn't help that his wife, rather than be offended or jealous, found the whole thing amusing.

He heard her sigh in his mind as they reached the max ceiling and started to descend again.

_Oh... Oh, Keiichi, that was incredible,_ the F-40, named "Verushka" by Mischa, though officially designated the Shinden II for sale to the Japanese Air Self Defense Force, said. _Oh, my love, Ya tebya lyublu! Moya lyubov' slovno ptitsa, katoraya gotova vzvit'sya vvynshinu!_

Keiichi sat uncomfortably through the jet fighter's Russian pillow talk, unsure as to whether or not he really wanted to know what she was saying. One thing was for sure, asking Mischa was out of the question.

He sighed. "Why can't I have a normal fighter like everyone else?"

888

Urd stared at her sister, grinning. "It's okay, Sis. You can laugh."

Belldandy was trying desperately not to. "It's not funny," she let out with a contradictory smile. "That poor airplane is in love with him."

The older goddess leaned over the table. "You should have seen him the first time she was like that. He didn't want to tell me even though it was bothering him. Finally, he came out with it, and I honestly think he was offended when I laughed at him."

"He must have been rather crestfallen," Belldandy allowed.

"Yeah," Urd sighed. "As far as 'other women' go, Verushka's not bad. I could compete with her." She looked up at her sister. "You... not so much."

_Seven years ago..._

"You're going?" Belldandy asked with a disappointed look.

Keiichi put his jacket on as he replied. "I have to," he said. "There's a situation I'm still trying to fix, and I've got an idea I want to try."

Even as he said the words, he was unsure about them. Yeah, his idea to help the Shinden was a good one, but he could always follow through on it Monday. So why was he in such a hurry to leave?

_Things are happening too fast,_ he thought. _I need a moment to myself._

Belldandy continued to look at him with puppy-dog eyes.

"Belldandy," he explained, "I have a friend, and she needs help."

The goddess nodded, then suddenly brightened. "Perhaps I can help! I could go with you!"

Trapped, Keiichi paused, not knowing what he could say to derail that. Fortunately, he didn't have to. There was a splash from the bathroom and the sound of feet running down the hall toward them.

"ONEESAMA?!"

Belldandy turned, finding Skuld standing wide-eyed at the end of the hall. Keiichi hadn't seen the youngest Norn since the day she left for school, but he could swear she was two inches taller than she was the last he saw her. She must have just come from class because she wore a tan and black school uniform complete with knee-high socks and a plaid skirt.

"Skuld!" Belldandy cried, rushing toward her sister. The two met in the middle of the hallway and hugged.

"I missed you so much, Oneesama!" Skuld wept. "It was awful here without you!"

"It's all right, Skuld," Belldandy said comfortingly. "I'm back now."

Keiichi decided to take that moment to escape and turned for the door. He stopped short as he saw Urd open it and step out herself without a word to any of them. The boy rushed after her and finally caught up with her on the walkway toward the torii gate.

"Hey!" he called to her as he came up alongside her.

She turned, a little surprised to see him. "Oh, hey," she said. "Where are you going? I thought you'd be spending the day with Belldandy."

"I'm going to the hangar," he replied. "I've got an idea for the Shinden's problem... and Skuld just arrived, so I think she should have a chance to catch up with Belldandy too."

"Ah," Urd said with a nod.

"What about you?" he asked.

"I need to talk to Teletha," she said. "My contract's coming up for renewal."

"Oh," he said. He touched her arm to stop her. "Hey, look, about last night..."

"What about last night?" she asked, a tenor of apprehension seizing her voice.

"You wanted to talk about something," he supplied. He bowed his head apologetically. "I know I said we'd talk last night, but with Belldandy appearing out of the blue and all..."

"Yeah, I understand," she said quickly and started walking again.

"Well, what I mean is," he began as he started walking again. "... is that if you want to talk now, I'm all ears."

"Don't worry about it, Keiichi," she said with a smile. "It's just a... just a little thing. I'm okay."

"You sure?" the boy asked skeptically. "You seemed pretty worried last night."

"I had some time to think," she said. They came to the end of the sidewalk and she started for the train station. "Later." She didn't look back.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "Later."

888

"Yeah, is this Dr. Yamaguchi's office?" Keiichi asked into the phone. "Awesome. Hey..." He turned and looked out the Aeronautics Club office's window that gave him a view of the Shinden inside the hangar. "... I... um... I need help. I... um... You see... I need a psychiatrist..."

He paused as he listened to the person on the other end.

"Yeah," he replied. "Yeah, I'm all screwed up. A bunch of my friends died in... um... Iraq," he lied. "And I need to talk about it." He listened again. "Okay, now here's the thing. I'm so screwed up that I can only talk about this someplace where I'm comfortable... Where's that? Oh... um... in my hangar... sitting on the wing of my airplane. Hello? Hello?!"

He hung up the phone and looked at the next listing in the phone book, continuing to dial even as he heard someone outside yell, "Money's coming!"

The office door opened and swung shut. Turning, he gave Teletha a sheepish look and held up a finger, asking for a minute. "Hi, is this Dr. Hasukawa? Yeah, do you do housecalls? No... What about hangar calls? Thanks anyway."

He hung up and turned to the CEO. "Hey, Teletha," he said tiredly. "What's up?"

She stepped up to him...

And slapped him across the face.

"This is _your_ fault, Keiichi Morisato!" she declared presumptively.

He blinked at her. "Um... What? Oh! The Shinden! So you heard about that... Yeah, she's going to be down for a..."

"I'm talking about Urd, you simpleton!" she cried at him.

Now he was even more perplexed. "Look, if she's asking for too much money, that's really not..."

"She quit!" Teletha exploded. "She quit! My best model quit! And it's all your fault!"

He looked at her, stunned past words. "Wait... What?! Why?!"

"Are you really so dense?!" she cried. "She said her sister was back so she wasn't needed anymore!"

"But... that's stupid!" he cried back.

"It's not stupid for a woman, you... you... BLOCKHEAD!" she cried. She poked him in the chest with a perfectly-manicured finger. "Well, you better do something to get her back," she warned. "She's a nice girl and deserves better.... and I need her on my catalogue covers! So listen close, Keiichi Morisato. If Urd walks from Whispers, Whispers walks from you! Got it?!"

He grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and threw it on. "I'm going to find out what's going on," he told her. "Don't rip up her contract. She's drunk or something."

She glared at him. "Drunk? You really don't get it."

The boy looked up at her, puzzled.

Teletha looked at him sadly and sighed. "And I guess you never will." She turned and walked out of the office, leaving Keiichi thoroughly befuddled.

He shook it off and picked up the phone. After two rings he heard Belldandy's voice.

"Hello?"

God, it sounded good to hear her voice. He shook it off.

"Belldandy, it's me. Have you heard from Urd lately?"

"Not since this morning," Belldandy replied. "Why?"

"I think there's something wrong. If you see her, tell her I'm looking for her, okay?"

"Hai!"

"Thanks, Belldandy."

"Of course, Keiichi," she said. "Keiichi?"

"Yeah?"

He could almost see her smiling over the phone. "I love you."

His hand gripped the phone tightly as his breath left him. "I love you too," he whispered. He quickly hung up the phone and started outside for his bike.

888

Urd's head rested on the bar next to two empty shot glasses. She felt awful after leaving Whispers. She had never quit a job before. Been fired, sure, but never quit.

The look of disappointment in Teletha's eyes... Only Belldandy was ever able to make her feel that way.

But everything Urd told her was true. Belldandy was back. She could get her old job back and help out with the finances, which is why Urd went looking for a job to begin with. Belldandy was going to take on her old roles, so it was time for Urd to take on hers.

She closed her eyes again, feeling the familiar warmth at the end of her nose informing her she was tipsy.

_Maybe it's love, I don't know._

_I don't know when I started feeling this way, but_

_I love you._

_But so that you won't realize_

_that I'm scared, I've been..._

_I can't go on_

_always hiding my feelings_

_like this, but..._

_I can't say the words_

_Because we can never go back to being friends if I say_

_"I love you."_

She raised her head at the sound of the song's lyrics and growled. "Oi!" she called out to the bartender. "Can we play _anything_ else?!"

The song stopped mid-word as the bartender put in a new CD. Elvis Presley's voice came over the speaker.

_Are you lonesome tonight?_

_Do you miss me tonight?_

_Are you sorry we drifted apart?_

Urd's head hit the bar, tapping the wood over and over again with her forehead in defeat.

"Scotch!" she demanded.

The bartender put a drink in front of her and walked off. She didn't bother nursing it, downing the glass in one go just as someone put a motorcycle helmet on the bar next to her and sat down.

She looked to her left and found a reasonably attractive guy taking the stool next to hers. He was a little taller than Keiichi, but had a similar mop of dark hair. The goddess listened as he ordered a beer and her eyes fell to his helmet. Reaching out, she ran her fingers along the edge of the visor.

"What do you ride?" she asked.

He seemed to notice her for the first time and smiled. "A Suzuki," he told her. "You ride?"

She ran a hand through her hair and took a breath that ended in an uncertain giggle. "Once or twice... on my back... I mean... I mean on the back..." She giggled again and smiled. "I like your eyebrows."

He laughed, unsure of what to say. "My _eyebrows_?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered. "It means you have a trustworthy face."

"Well, that's good to hear," he said. "I'm Akio."

"Urd," she replied. She leaned in close to him. "I'm a goddess," she whispered. "I shouldn't even be telling you that."

"I had my suspicions," he quipped with a grin. "So, Urd, what do you do?"

"I'm a stand-in," she said. "An understudy. But I was also an underwear model... and I helped kids with burns... and I worked with an Aeron...Aeronutty's Club..."

"Okay," he said, snapping his fingers. "I thought you were familiar. My ex-girlfriend had a catalogue with you on it." He shook his head. "You were... incredibly... hot."

She smiled and moved closer to him. "You think I'm hot?"

"Yeah," he said.

The goddess grinned. "Take me for a ride on your bike."

888

It was Toshio who answered the door and found Keiichi waiting on the other side.

"Hey, Keiichi," he greeted his future brother-in-law. "What's up?"

"Hey, Toshio," Keiichi returned. "Urd here?"

"Uh... no," the boy remarked. "Can't find her?"

"I keep telling you both you need cell phones!" Keiichi heard his sister yell out from the living room.

Keiichi rolled his eyes and stepped into the apartment. "Landlines are fine," he shot back. "Did she call?"

Megumi shook her head, looking up from the text book she was studying. "No. Why?"

"I think she's going through something," he said. "She quit her job today."

"What?!" Megumi cried. "After winning that award?!" Her eyes narrowed. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!"

"Did something happen on your date last night?" Toshio asked.

"Hey, buddy," Keiichi said quickly. "Wasn't a date. Let's be clear here."

"So then what happened?" Megumi asked.

"I don't know," Keiichi sighed. "She's been weird ever since Belldandy got back."

"Woah! Wait a sec!" Megumi cried. "_Belldandy's back?_!"

He winced, suddenly realized who he had forgotten to call. "Yeah," he admitted. "She was there when we got home last night."

Megumi gave him an incredulously accusatory look. "And yet you can't figure out what's wrong with her?" she asked, dumbfounded.

Keiichi took a breath, wishing that whatever was obvious to everyone else would at least give him a hint.

"Look, whatever," Megumi said, giving up with a sigh. She wasn't going to jump into this if neither of them were willing to admit it. "She hasn't been here. So what's going on with Belldandy?"

"She just... came back," Keiichi told her. "Out of the blue."

"I guess she didn't like California, huh?"

"Something like that," he allowed. He took a breath and sat down.

Megumi watched him closely, seeing the confusion behind his eyes. "Hey, hon," she addressed Toshio. "Could you give us a minute?"

"Yeah, sure," the boy told them. "I'm going to go for a walk or something."

Megumi waited for him to leave before speaking again. "What is it?"

"It's weird," Keiichi told her. "I don't feel the way I thought I would feel when she came back."

"How did you think you would feel?" she asked.

"I don't know," he sighed. "Complete? Like the story was over and the happy ending would be here. But... I don't. I love her. I really do, but... I don't know... there's something weird about this whole thing."

"How so?"

He bit his lip, wondering how much he could say without blowing the Norns' cover. "Okay, this is going to sound stupid," he began, "But have you ever wanted something... or waited for something to happen... that you played it out in your mind? How things would go. What you would say, what they would say?"

Megumi nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Well... for three years I did that with Belldandy coming home," he said. "And it all happened."

She looked puzzled. "Um... good?" she tried.

"No, I mean it _all_ happened," he said. "She said it all. Every line I ever made up in my head. The conversation happened _exactly_ like I pictured it would."

Megumi blinked at him.

He nodded, wondering if he was going insane. "Down to the very... last... word."

888

Urd's back hit the wall, and she wrapped her arms around the man's body as she kissed him fiercely. They hadn't bothered to turn on the lights in Akio's tiny ground-floor apartment. She drunkenly pulled at his shirt to get at the bare skin of his back while he grabbed a handful of her ass and squeezed.

She closed her eyes and whimpered, concentrating at the feeling, the sense of being the center of a man's attention, something she hadn't felt in a very long time.

The goddess felt his lips on her neck where it met her shoulder, and she threw her head back and gasped.

"Oh, God!" she gasped out. "Keiichi!"

"It's Akio," he mumbled into her shoulder.

Her eyes popped open, and her breathing started to slow as her mind finally started to catch up to what was going on. She took him by the shoulders and pushed him away.

"Hey," he said in response to her actions. "What is it?"

She looked at him, wondering how she ever could have thought he was like Keiichi. Like him enough to be a stand-in for him.

_Like you were a stand-in for Belldandy?_ Her mind teased.

"Thanks for the ride," she muttered, starting for the door.

"The hell?" Akio cried. "Crazy bitch!"

She shut the door behind her and stumbled down the street.

"Whore," she breathed to herself. "Can't be with the one you love," she recited. "Love the one you meet in a bar after too much scotch..."

The goddess didn't turn when she felt the new presence next to her. "Shut up," she told it. "Just shut up. Don't say a word. I don't want to hear it. Just shut... up."

Floating next to her, a devastated and sympathetic look on her face, World of Elegance said nothing.

"We got lucky, all right?" Urd went on as she made her way down the street. "If I had followed your stupid advice, Belldandy would hate me, and Keiichi would be so... so devastated by betraying Belldandy... he'd never look at me again." She paused and took a few breaths. "So shut up. No more advice, no more sage words from my higher self. Just shut your fucking mouth."

The angel looked down at the ground, chastised and humiliated.

"What the hell were we thinking?" Urd asked herself, World of Elegance or both. "We did this for _Belldandy_, God dammit! A few years of playing house with her boyfriend, and all of a sudden I start thinking I'm her? That he might want _me_ instead? What the hell was I thinking?"

The angel looked up and cocked her head to one side, giving her an answer.

Urd held her hands over her ears. "Didn't I tell you to shut up?! I know how I felt, I don't need my emotions catalogued by my angel!"

World of Elegance, tears in her eyes, shrugged, not sure what else she could say.

"I'm going to do what I should have done from the beginning," she said. "I'm going to transfer the wish back to Belldandy, and then I'm going to leave them alone."

She wondered if Yggdrasil had updated Belldandy's status yet and looked for a pay phone. Finding one, she dialed the Goddess Help Line and got Epona again.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am," the horse goddess told her. "But the system still shows Belldandy as being sealed. Maybe tomorrow."

"Our time or your time?" Urd growled. "Time dilation's a bitch."

She heard Epona sigh and could almost see her checking a clock. "Try tomorrow morning your time," she suggested. "That's a couple of hours from now for us."

Urd hung up without saying thank you and started for the temple.

888

Sayoko Mishima knew the cliche for pregnant women at rest was to be knitting something, but she wasn't going to go for it. Instead she was sitting at Keiichi's computer, looking for baby clothes online. An optimistic smile graced her face and for good reason. That morning, she had gone out and gotten her first debit card.

Oh, she had used credit cards before, but never one where the money being drawn from it was money she earned. Sure the balance on it was small, but there was enough to get a yellow onesie online.

"Sayoko san?"

The woman turned and smiled. She had been surprised when she came home from the movies last night to find Keiichi and Belldandy in a tender embrace, but she was happy for them all the same.

"Belldandy," she greeted. "Hi." She rose to her feet. "I know we haven't had a chance to talk..."

"That's why I'm here, Sayoko san," Belldandy said, stepping inside and closing the door behind her. "I'd like to talk."

"Sure," Sayoko told her. She looked down at herself and suddenly felt embarrassed at the fact that it was one of Belldandy's dresses and not one of her old power suits that adorned her.

The pregnant woman watched as Belldandy started to circle her. "I admit, I was surprised to find you living here," she said. "I must also admit... given Keiichi san's past feelings for you... it bothered me a little..."

"Feelings for me?" Sayoko asked, her hand going to her chest. Of course she knew Keiichi had been attracted to her, all men were, after all. But feelings?

Belldandy smiled. "Hai." She approached the woman and rested a hand on her shoulder. "So... please don't be offended by this question, but..." She took a breath and licked her lips. "Is that Keiichi san's baby?"

Sayoko smiled and chuckled a little. She tossed her hair and decided to have a little fun with her former rival. "Oh, Belldandy," she said. "It's a very... delicate... ma..."

She gasped as the hand on her shoulder suddenly pushed her against the wall and pinned her there. Sayoko's eyes widened at the coldness in Belldandy's blue orbs.

"I must... know..." Belldandy whispered. "I know there's another. Someone holds the secret of his heart."

Sayoko shook her head quickly. "He's not the father! Now get off me!" she pushed Belldandy's arm away. "Are you nuts?"

The goddess smiled sweetly. "Sayoko san, please understand. Given our past... I had to know for sure."

"So now you know," Sayoko hissed at her.

"Hai, I do," Belldandy told her. She looked away for a moment before turning back to her. "Sayoko san... I think you should leave."

"Leave?" the woman repeated. "What do you mean, 'leave?!'"

"There's no longer room for you here," Belldandy told her simply, that same sweet smile on her face. "It's time for things to go back to the way they were."

Sayoko grit her teeth in rage. "Keiichi said I could stay as long as I want," she hissed. "So I'm staying until he tells me I have to go."

Belldandy stepped closer to her until the women were cheek to cheek. "Sayoko san," she whispered. "You have to understand... if you don't leave..." She trailed her hand down to Sayoko's abdomen. "... then I can't guarantee the safety of your child."

The mortal woman slid silently away from Belldandy, keeping her back to the wall as she stepped toward the door. She swallowed dryly while the goddess smiled at her.

"Stay away from me," Sayoko whispered.

"I will, Sayoko san," Belldandy told her. "I promise I will." Her smile disappeared. "Leave."

The woman disappeared out the door, leaving Belldandy alone. The goddess smiled again and began to hum to herself as she started to clean.

888

He should have known.

Keiichi found the ladder in the shed and leaned it against the side of the temple before climbing to the roof. He found Urd sitting on the edge, looking out at the carnival below.

"Hey!" he called out. "Where've you been?"

She shrugged without facing him. "Around."

"Teletha came by today," he said, approaching her carefully. "You want to talk about it?"

The goddess shrugged again. "Nothing to talk about. I got that job because we needed money while Belldandy was sealed. Now Belldandy's back. Job's done, mission accomplished."

"But you liked it," he said, half in accusation, half in shock.

She looked over at him as he sat down next to her. "No," she said. "I liked..." She licked her lips and shook her head. "I liked what it did for you. That it helped Belldandy. I mean... me? Working? It was never me, Keiichi."

He shook his head. "Urd, I don't know what's going on, but I know that's crap," he told her. "I'd never seen you so happy as I did last night."

She closed her eyes and bit her lip as he continued.

"You were so proud of yourself, and... And so happy... I..."

The goddess wrapped her lips around a sake bottle and took a pull. "You got your life back, Keiichi," she said quickly as she lowered the bottle. "Don't begrudge me the return of my own."

He looked away guiltily. "I don't mean it that way. You can do whatever you want, I just thought..."

"What did you think, Keiichi?" she asked. "You knew this day would come, right? Desdemona told you so." She looked down at the ground below. "Things are going back to normal. Belldandy can cook. She can clean. She can work a register. She can smile at you and make all your problems go away. She can do all the things that I can't do." She turned away. "Be all the things that I can't be." She was silent for several moments, Keiichi waiting for her to continue. "I was your goddess for awhile. Not anymore. Now we're just friends again."

She looked up at the stars.

"And that's all we'll ever be."

Keiichi looked at her face, her eyes as they looked up at the heavens. He wished he could say something that would help her, make her feel better. But he had nothing.

"What were you going to tell me?" he finally whispered the question. "Last night?"

Urd cleared her throat and looked away. "I was going to tell you... that I'm leaving," she lied.

The answer shocked him. "Leaving?!"

She nodded and smiled at him. "Pretty good timing, huh?"

"Wait! You're leaving?!"

Urd nodded again. "I'm not what you need, Keiichi," she said. "You need a Belldandy who can fill those empty parts of your life, not... not fake her way through a half-assed attempt."

"That's..."

"Freya was right," Urd cut him off. "I wasn't qualified. I was a poor understudy at best. At first, it all made sense, but as time went on, and I thought it became clear Sis wasn't coming back... I knew you needed someone who could make you happy."

He opened his mouth to reply, but reigned it back, the words that leapt to mind were the wrong ones, he knew.

"Urd," he said instead. "You don't have to go."

She smiled at him. "I've hung around long enough, Keiichi," she said. "Got between you and my sister enough." She nodded. "It's time to let you two be. I'll even drag Skuld back with me."

It was Keiichi's turn to look down at the ground.

"You don't want to be alone with Belldandy?" Urd asked him.

He raised his head and took a breath. "I once said you were the last link I had to a family I loved. Now you're saying you're leaving and making Belldandy that last link. We're family, Urd."

She blinked tears from her eyes. "We'll always be family, Keiichi."

The boy shook his head in frustrated defeat. "When will you go?"

Urd wiped the tears from her eyes. "There's an administrative thing I got to take care of. Once that's done, I'll be on my way."

"This stinks, Urd," he told her bluntly.

"Yeah," she agreed. "But in a few years, when you and Belldandy are married and working on your third kid, you'll thank me."

888

Belldandy hummed to herself as she prepared dinner, checking the cook book again to make sure everything was perfect. While she knew what foods Keiichi liked, he didn't know how to prepare them and thus neither did she. It was those gaps that made this so difficult for her.

But she had to persevere, just long enough to find it, the secret of his heart. Once she had that, she could finish what she had begun, take him as her own, squeeze the love from his heart like the juice from an orange. It was hers. She _wanted_ it, could taste it.

She knew there was another, though. She heard her in his head, warning him away. His heart was split, and half his heart just would not do, oh no...

The mortal belonged to her, just as the others belonged to her.

Belldandy lifted the tasting dish to her lips and sipped the concoction.

Perfect.

"Skuld! Keiichi san! Dinner's ready!" she called.

Everything was perfect.


	24. Where Shall We Shelter? Part 2

Disclaimer: AMG and FMP aren't mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 24**

**Where Shall We Shelter? Where Shall We Sleep? Part 2**

_"It's time for a few small repairs, she said,_

_Sunny came home with a vengeance..."_

_Shawn Colvin_

_"Sunny Came Home"_

He beat against the inside of the canopy as freezing water rose past his waist and continued to engulf the pilot. The Shinden was now entirely beneath the water, and the cockpit still wouldn't open.

Keiichi pushed fruitlessly against it as the lights on the control board flickered and went out, the salt water shorting out the glass cockpit. The water reached his neck, and he pounded against the glass.

Suddenly, floating above him was Belldandy, her chestnut hair waving lazily in the water. He breathed a sigh of relief as the goddess smiled at him.

Belldandy opened her mouth and snarled as the flesh on her skull withered away, revealing a hideous monster. Taloned hands reached out, breaking through the cockpit glass and wrapping around his throat...

Keiichi gasped as he sat up in bed, the nightmare waking him as if from an exorcism.

He put his hands to either side of his head as he tried to calm down. Belldandy being there was definitely a new spin on the dream he'd been having off and on lately.

"Keiichi san?"

The boy looked up quickly and found Belldandy there, not in the doorway as if she heard him cry out, but in the corner of his room. He shook his head and dismissed it.

"Belldandy?" he asked.

"Are you all right?" she asked in concern, stepping forward and kneeling next to him.

"Yeah," he said, running his fingers through his hair. "Just a bad dream."

She reached out and touched his hair, trailing her fingers across his cheek. "Is there anything I can do?" she asked breathlessly.

He took a breath and smiled. "No," he said. "I'm okay."

The goddess sat next to him, making no attempt whatsoever to give him any space now that she knew he was all right. "You seemed troubled at dinner, Keiichi san," she said. "What's bothering you?"

He shook his head in belated exasperation. "Urd is talking about leaving," he said.

"She is?"

Keiichi nodded. "I think she's feeling a little lost, you know?" he guessed. "I mean, you're a pretty hard act to follow, and she did it for three years. Now you're back, and she's like, 'What do I do now?'"

The goddess stroked his hair as he spoke.

"You should be proud of her, Belldandy," he said. "She did great."

"I know," Belldandy told him. "And I am."

"Would you talk to her?" he asked.

Belldandy seemed to think on this. "Hai. I will."

He sighed in relief. "Thanks, Belldandy."

"It's my pleasure, Keiichi san." She smiled and hugged him close to her, already thinking of what to say.

888

"You have got to be kidding me," Urd said into the phone.

On the other end, Epona sighed. "No, I'm not kidding. Belldandy's status still hasn't been updated."

"Yeah, but how is that even possible?" Urd argued. "Yggdrasil does some weird stuff sometimes, but it's usually pretty good about not dragging its feet!"

"Look, Urd," Epona began, getting rather fed up with the Norn. "Why don't you call the NOSC and ask them? I work for the Help Line, not the NOSC. Updates in the system are their responsibility."

The goddess growled.

"Until then," Epona went on, "The only thing I can tell you is to try again later."

Urd rolled her eyes. "Fine. Thanks anyway." She hung up and rubbed her eyes. It was still early. She tried to wake up before Keiichi and Belldandy, not desiring an audience for this, but as she walked down the hall, she could hear that it was a pointless exercise. The sounds of not only Keiichi's voice, but Sayoko's and Peorth's could be heard emanating from Keiichi's room.

Curious, she poked her head in and found the three embroiled in some kind of debate.

"Cheri, you're mistaken," Peorth told her in exasperation. "I have an easier time believing Skuld will become a valkyrie than the idea that Belldandy would threaten someone."

"What's going on?" Urd asked.

Sayoko growled and turned away from them. Keiichi sighed and answered the goddess.

"Sayoko says Belldandy threatened her."

It took a moment for the idea to register in her head. She blinked. "Say that again?"

"She _threatened_ me, okay?" Sayoko growled at her, obviously at the end of her rope. "She said I should leave the house, and that she couldn't guarantee the safety of my baby if I didn't."

"It's a mistake," Peorth repeated. "You took something she said the wrong way."

"It's not a mistake!" Sayoko cried. "What she said, _how_ she said it! It was a threat!"

Keiichi held a hand up to silence them both. "Okay, look, obviously something needs to be cleared up here." He poked his head into the hallway. "Oi! Belldandy!"

"Hai?!" the goddess's call came from the kitchen.

"Could you come here for a minute?"

"Hai!"

Keiichi turned back to the other goddesses. "We'll just ask Belldandy. That'll clear it up."

"What?!" Sayoko asked, scandalized by the naivete in the idea. "So her word is automatically gold, but I 'misheard?'"

"Belldandy doesn't lie," Keiichi told her calmly. Seeing the anger in the pregnant woman's face, he went on. "Remember when you asked me about her? This is one of the things that comes with it. Belldandy _can't_ lie. We'll ask her, and you'll see it was all just a misunderstanding."

At that moment, Belldandy stepped into the room, drying her hands on a dish towel. "Is everything all right?"

Keiichi smiled at her. "Belldandy, Sayoko is upset about something you said yesterday."

"Oh?" she asked, blinking.

"Yeah," Keiichi went on as Sayoko glared at the goddess. "She says you told her she should leave and that you couldn't guarantee her baby's safety if she didn't."

Belldandy's eyes went wide. "But... But I never said any such thing!"

Sayoko's eyes went wide. "What?!"

The goddess turned to her, tears in her eyes. "Sayoko san, I don't know where you got such an idea, but I swear I would never even think of such a thing!"

"You... lying... bitch," Sayoko breathed.

"Sayoko san!" Belldandy cried. "I... I don't know what's happened or why you're saying these things, but... if I did or said anything to make you uncomfortable, I'm so sorry!"

Sayoko looked at Peorth and Keiichi. The rose goddess had an "I told you so" look on her face, while Keiichi looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"She's lying!" Sayoko cried. It took her a moment to realize no one believed her. She turned to Urd.

"Urd!"

Urd bit her lip and looked down at the ground.

Sayoko nodded angrily. "Fine!" She pushed her way past them and marched down the hall.

"Well," Peorth noted. "That was awkward. Why do you think she would make something up like that?"

"Keiichi san, I don't know why Sayoko san said those things, but..."

"I know, Belldandy," he said. "It's okay." He shook his head. First Urd, now Sayoko. Was everyone in their house losing their minds? "Let's give her some time to cool off."

"Hai," Belldandy agreed.

"Well, while she cools off, I'm going to see what's on TV this early in the morning," Peorth told them, making her exit.

Keiichi sighed and rubbed his tired eyes.

"Keiichi san," Belldandy began. "Breakfast is on the table. Why don't you go eat while I speak with my sister?"

The boy took the hint and gave her a knowing smile. He stepped out of the room and made for the kitchen. Belldandy turned to Urd and smiled.

"Neesan," she began, "Keiichi told me your heart is troubled. Tell me."

Urd scratched the back of her head, not sure she was up to airing her problems to the woman she came so close to betraying. "I'm okay," she said. "Really."

"He said you intend to leave," Belldandy went on. "Is this true?"

The elder Norn paused, licking her lips in apprehension. "Yeah," she said. "I am."

Belldandy reached out and touched her hand. "I think... that may be best."

Urd shook her head, convinced she'd heard wrong. "What?"

"Neesan," she said uncomfortably. "Your heart is aching, I can feel it within my own."

"My heart is fine," Urd told her quickly.

"No, it's not," Belldandy told her, stepping closer to her sister. "I know how it must feel."

"I think you've lost me," Urd said, playing for time and praying she wasn't caught.

"You have regrets," Belldandy told her. "About the man you love."

Urd started shaking her head. "I don't know what you're talking about..."

"Troubadour," the other goddess explained. She took another step toward her and reached up, touching her face with her fingertips. "You lost Troubadour, and for the first time in your life you've seen the kind of love and life you were denied when he left." She stroked her sister's face in a way that made the goddess extremely uncomfortable. "I would see your heart healed," she whispered.

Urd stood there, hypnotized by her words.

"My poor sister," Belldandy breathed. "Like my Keiichi you grieved and now grieve again for love lost." She leaned up, her lips coming very close to Urd's. "I could heal you..."

"Heal me?" Urd whispered through a numbing haze.

"Make you whole again," Belldandy whispered, taking her sister's head in her hands. "But not yet... not here..."

"Then where?" Urd asked quietly as if gripped in a dream.

"The island," Belldandy breathed into her ear.

Urd blinked, totally confused by what was going on. She took a quick step back, and it was as if the hypnotist snapped his fingers, awakening her. She blinked rapidly and looked at Belldandy, who merely smiled at her.

"I will heal your heart," she said. "Yours and Keiichi's both."

With that declaration, Belldandy walked into the hallway, leaving Urd there dumbfounded.

888

Sayoko, lacking any real luggage, stuffed a plastic garbage bag with whatever possessions she could truthfully call her own with an angry determination, shaking her head in bitter surprise. How could they just take Belldandy's word for it? Belldandy said it, so it must be true? What a load of crap!

She felt a presence behind her and turned quickly, fearing it might be Belldandy there to make good on her threat, but instead she saw Urd, a haunted expression on her face.

The mortal turned and went back to packing. "Don't worry," she threw over her shoulder. "I'm leaving."

"You don't have to go," Urd told her.

"Yes, I do," Sayoko replied. "I don't know for sure what you and your sister are, but I've learned by now that she has enough power to make good on any threat she feels like making." She paused, more angry at herself than anything else. "I'm scared of her, Urd. Not for me, but for my baby. She didn't threaten _me,_ she threatened _my baby_! And that's the scariest thing of all!"

She started packing again but stopped a moment later. "And no one believes me."

"I believe you."

Sayoko looked over her shoulder in disbelief, finally seeing how rattled the other woman was.

"You do?"

Urd looked down at the ground and nodded. "There's something wrong here,"she said. "Very wrong."

"Go on," Sayoko ordered.

The goddess shook her head. "It's like... I don't know... Maybe they did something to her..."

"Did something to her?" Sayoko asked, folding her arms over her chest. "In _California_?"

Urd looked at her, realizing she was the wrong person to be having this conversation with. "Don't go. I'll figure it out."

Sayoko returned to packing. "You don't get it."

"Look, I know you're pissed..."

"I'm scared out of my mind, Urd!" Sayoko shot at her. She stalked up to the goddess until they were toe to toe. "She stood right here! Just like this!" She reached out and touched Urd's stomach. "Touched my baby and smiled while she threatened it! You don't know what that feels like! Believe me, you don't _ever_ want to know!" She turned and stuffed the last of her shirts into the bag. "I can't risk it."

"What will you do?" Urd asked. "Where will you go?"

"I saved my yen," Sayoko said proudly. "It's not a lot, but I can get a little apartment and make the rent if I pinch the life out of every one of them."

Urd paused for a few heartbeats. "Wait here," she said, turning to leave.

"I'm not changing my mind," Sayoko growled.

The goddess turned to her and growled right back. "Stay. HERE."

Sayoko sighed and waited as Urd left the room, returning a few moments later with a wad of bills. "Here," she said, offering the wad of yen to her. "It's my rainy day booze stash."

"I don't need charity," Sayoko told her.

"Then keep it in a cookie jar," Urd snapped at her. "But _have_ it when you _need_ it."

After a momentary staring contest, Sayoko hesitantly reached out and took the wad of cash, stuffing it in her pocket. "Thank you," she said quietly.

Urd nodded. "Don't worry about it. If you need anything, call me."

Sayoko nodded. "Urd... thanks... for everything, I mean."

The goddess gave her a smile. "Just remember that 'Urd' is an awesome name for a girl."

The mother-to-be smiled back. "No... it's not."

888

Urd walked out of Sayoko's room still trying to shake the fog from her mind. There was something very wrong, and the fact that her discussion with Belldandy was retreating from her memory despite her best efforts to remember it proved it.

She wasn't sure anymore what her sister had said to her, all she knew was the feelings it created. It was like her mind and heart were wrapped in a warm blanket, and for a few moments, she _did_ feel better, not just better, wonderful. It was less like a pep talk and more like a drug. The blanket not only warmed her mind, it smothered it as well.

But she was a goddess of love, and she knew it didn't work that way.

888

Peorth looked up from the TV as she felt someone touch her shoulder. Urd looked down at her, obviously troubled.

"Let's talk," she said simply.

The rose goddess shrugged and followed the Norn down the hall to her bedroom. Once they were inside, Urd shut the door and turned to her.

"There's something wrong with Belldandy," Urd told her straight out.

The other goddess arched an eyebrow. "She seems fine to me."

"We talked a few minutes ago, and..." Urd broke off, the conversation with her sister now a distant and foggy memory. "She... She wasn't herself."

"What did she say?" Peorth asked.

Urd bit her lip. "I'm not sure."

Peorth gave her a disappointed look. "You're not sure, but you know something is wrong?"

"I know it sounds crazy," Urd sighed.

"It doesn't sound crazy, Urd," Peorth said sadly. "It sounds desperate."

The Norn blinked. "What?"

Peorth sighed and sat down, adopting a stern, teaching voice. "I sympathize with you, Urd, you know that. That's why I'm going to say this as bluntly as possible." She took a breath. "You're imagining things. You're imagining things because you love Keiichi. Because you want so badly for Belldandy to be an imposter or an evil twin... anyone but your sister." She looked up at Urd and saw the bald-faced anger on her face. "Let him go."

Urd snarled at her. "I've been doing nothing the last thirty-six hours but trying to get the wish put back in Belldandy's lap! I'm not making this up! There is something wrong with her! Maybe Hild did something to her, hypnotized her, fucked up her brain! I don't know! The only thing I do know right now is that woman out there is not the same woman who walked out the door three years ago!"

The rose goddess folded her arms over her chest. "State your evidence."

Urd ran her fingers through her hair, suddenly put on the spot. "Yesterday she was using a cook book."

"Well, call in the valkyries!" Peorth quipped.

The Norn gave her a disgusted look. "And that thing with Sayoko."

"You believe Sayoko over Belldandy?" Peorth asked in utter disbelief. "Didn't you electrocute her like a hundred times? And Belldandy _can't_ lie!"

"Then maybe that's not Belldandy at all!" Urd cried. She blinked at the force of her own words. How could that not be Belldandy? She looked like her, talked like her, felt like her. She said all the right things, did all the right things. Everyone _knew_ it was her...

_Except Yggdrasil..._ the truth came rushing into her mind. According to Heaven, Belldandy was sealed...

Peorth looked at her with aggravated pity. "Urd," she said. "You're doing nothing but hurting yourself. If you can't let him go, then you really should leave." She rose to her feet and started for the door. Urd did nothing to stop her, turned inward by her own revelation.

She didn't hear the door close.

_If that's not Belldandy... then who the Hell is she?_

888

"So then it hit me! All I have to do is account for the gravitational forces of each molecule existing independently of the rotation of the planet on its axis that are exuded on the molecules that actually make up the solid form that makes up the planet and I'd have it!"

Skuld looked at them both with a triumphant look. Belldandy smiled broadly while Keiichi looked like someone who had just been shouted at in Portuguese.

"Wow," Keiichi said. "That's... um... awesome?"

Skuld sighed. "I don't expect _you_ to understand," she said. "But yeah, it was pretty killer."

"So I guess you're learning a lot at that school, huh?" Keiichi asked.

"You wouldn't believe the stuff they teach there!" Skuld said excitedly. "Did you know that if the United States stops minting pennies, the world will actually stop spinning?!"

Keiichi blinked.

"Yeah," Skuld said with a nod. "Think about _that_!"

"When do you have to go back, Skuld chan?" Belldandy asked.

"Well, they gave me a few days off because you came out of your seal," Skuld told her. "But I have to be back next week." She adopted a hopeful look. "Or I could stay here and just not go back!"

"Your education is important, Skuld," Belldandy pointed out. "You should go back."

"But Oneesama," Skuld whined. "I want to spend time with you..."

"And so you will," Belldandy told her. "But not at the expense of your education."

"Belldandy's right," Keiichi added. "And you seem to really love it."

"Nobody asked you," Skuld told him pointedly.

"Fair enough," Keiichi replied.

He looked up as Urd stepped into the kitchen, a thoroughly pissed off look on her face. "Keiichi, I need your help."

"What's up?" he asked, not noticing Belldandy's curious look in her sister's direction.

"Another damn tile fell off the roof and nearly hit me," Urd complained. "You're going to go up there and fix it."

"I am?" he asked.

"Yes, you are," Urd told him as if speaking to a child. "You don't expect me to break a nail doing it myself, do you?"

He blinked at her behavior. It was more classic Urd than the goddess he had come to know. "Yeah, sure," he said. "I'll be right out."

Urd nodded and left the room, hoping Keiichi got the message.

He did. It wasn't but five minutes later that she heard the sound of the ladder striking the roof near where she sat. A few moments later, the boy was at her side.

"What's up?" he asked.

Urd quickly looked around to make sure Belldandy hadn't followed him. "I don't think that's Belldandy," she said in a whisper.

He smiled at first, thinking it a joke. "Not Belldandy?"

"Okay," she said, holding a hand up to stop future protests. "This is the part where you ask me for evidence, and I don't have any. Nothing concrete really. Just a bad feeling. I know my sister, and the way she's been acting..."

"Come on, Urd," he broke in. "How do you expect her to act? She just woke up from a three year dream and found every aspect of her life taken over by someone else."

"There's more than that," Urd told him quickly. "According to Yggdrasil, Belldandy's still sealed."

He blinked at the revelation. "What?"

She nodded. "I just got off the phone with them to confirm it. Her status still hasn't changed."

The boy looked away.

Her eyes widened. "You see it too," she gasped.

He took a breath, not anxious to entertain the wisps of thought that haunted him. "Just a couple of... odd things," he said. "But nothing that's really unlike Belldandy." He looked her in the eyes. "Please don't do this to me," he begged.

"Keiichi..."

"She's been through a serious thing," he explained. "So she's a little off. She'll get better. It'll just take some time."

Urd shook her head slowly. "Keiichi... if I'm right... then it's not even Belldandy. I don't know what she is yet... but it's not her." She licked her lips. "And that means we're going to have to do something to stop her."

He took a breath. "I need more."

"There is no more."

Keiichi said nothing for a moment. "Then I can't believe you."

"You have to!"

The man suddenly struck the roof with his fist, causing Urd to jump. "You are asking me to believe that the woman I... that the woman I love is some kind of... evil twin... Based on what?!"

"Woman's intuition," Urd told him seriously.

"Not good enough, dammit!" he cried. "Not good enough!" He turned away from her. "I've waited three _years_ for her to come back," he told her. "Losing her almost killed me. Losing her again...." He shook his head and left the thought unfinished.

She reached out to him, tears pooling her eyes. Her hand came to rest on his shoulder and she gave him a gentle squeeze. "Keiichi... I don't know what's happening here, but if you ever trusted me... even just a little... then please... trust me now."

He squeezed his eyes shut in anger and hurt.

"Just one more time," she begged.

Keiichi opened his eyes. "What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing," she told him. "I need more time to figure out what's going on. In the meantime, whatever she's here for probably has something to do with you. Watch her, but don't go anywhere alone with her."

He nodded sadly.

"Now we're going to go down there and tell them I'm leaving, that I'm going back to Heaven."

"What?"

"It's what she wants me to do," Urd told her. "That's why she threatened Sayoko. She's clearing the field. She wants it to be just you and her. She'll probably find ways to get rid of Skuld and Peorth next, but because they're goddesses, she'll be more subtle."

Belldandy's earlier insistence that Skuld return to school came back to him, and he nodded. So far it was making sense.

"Don't let Peorth leave," Urd told him. "If things go bad and I'm not here, then she's the only one who can go toe-to-toe with her."

He nodded again.

"Keiichi," she said, her tone softening. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry this happened."

The boy didn't reply, only nodded.

"Let's go downstairs."

888

It was over in five minutes, which only underscored how alone Urd really was. The fake Belldandy smiled and nodded in support. Peorth gushed about how Urd deserved a vacation. And Skuld seemed happy that she was leaving. The only one who actually looked sad about the ruse was Keiichi.

But Urd wasn't ready to leave quite yet. Stepping out the front door, she looked back at the temple residence for a moment before turning left and heading toward the collection of tents and rides that had sat on the temple grounds for the last two years.

She needed to know for sure, and there was someone who could tell her... if she was willing to believe.

While the ghosts that ran the haunted gypsy carnival didn't open the carnival during the day, they could at least be seen working around the tents and skeleton cages. Today, however, there was no one. The place seemed abandoned.

"They're hiding."

She turned suddenly and found Desdemona's glowing blue eyes watching her from the front flap of her tent.

"Hiding from what?" Urd asked.

"They sense it," the gypsy fortune teller told her. "The presence of great evil."

Urd took a few tentative steps toward her. "Where?" she asked.

"It be close," Desdemona told her. She stepped back into her tent, and Urd brazenly followed her.

"So why aren't you hiding?" Urd asked her.

"Because while the others are ghosts, they are still the ghosts of backward village bumpkins," Desdemona told her, taking her seat behind the crystal ball that sat in the center of her circular table. "They cannot see the future and do not understand the universe as I do."

Urd folded her arms over her chest and gave the ghost a snarky smile. "Believing to understand the universe is often the sign of a disturbed mind," she pointed out.

"So is loving a man for three years and never getting to second base," Desdemona pointed out with a smile. Urd blinked. She had used that description before to describe Keiichi and Belldandy's relationship. All of a sudden, she was on the other end of the statement.

"And what does understanding the universe tell you now?" Urd asked pointedly.

The gypsy smiled. "That there is no point in trying to run."

Urd swallowed.

Desdemona gave her a bored look. "What did you come here for?"

"Information," Urd told her straight.

"You did not seem to believe the last bit of information I gave you," the gypsy pointed out. "Why now do you want more?"

"Because now lives are at stake," Urd told her.

"Ah," the gypsy nodded. "So my predictions are good enough when lives may be lost... but not your honor?"

Urd leaned over the table and held out a thousand yen note. "Get predicting," she growled.

Desdemona took the bill and produced a small, leather bag. "What you are asking for is not the future," she said. "But a better understanding of the present." Urd nodded as she continued. "But the present can be much more difficult to understand than the future. You see, the present is constantly moving."

She reached down below the table and produced the skeleton of a chicken that was, to Urd's disgust, still moving around. Desdemona dumped the chicken into the sack and shook it violently before ceremoniously upending it onto the table. A pile of bones spread out across the table, and Desdemona examined them closely.

The gypsy looked very disturbed at what she saw.

"Hmmm," she noted. "What do you wish to know?"

"The new woman in my house," Urd began. "Is she my sister?"

Desdemona only had to glance at the bones to give her an answer. "Your lines have never crossed before two nights ago."

Urd took a breath and sat back on the stool. "That's a no," she breathed. She thought for a moment. "Who is she?"

Desdemona moved some of the bones around. "She is a beginning, an end, one who has been many."

"That doesn't help me," Urd bit out.

"Then you should probably try thinking harder," Desdemona told her. Urd growled and rolled her eyes. "What else?"

"Rather than ask you questions you're not going to answer," Urd began bitterly, "Why don't you just give me what you have?"

Desdemona gave her a contemptuous look and moved the bones around again. "I can give you two names," she said. "Two names that will allow you to discover everything you want to know about this woman."

"Shoot," Urd commanded.

"The first... is 'Yanagida.'"

Urd shook her head. "It's not ringing any bells."

"The second," Desdemona continued, ignoring the goddess. She looked up at her and smiled.

"...Kobura."

888

Keiichi watched as Belldandy swept the front steps. He wasn't supposed to be watching, per se. He was supposed to be reattaching the sidecar to the Beemer, but he couldn't concentrate. His gaze kept going to the goddess, looking for something, anything, that would bear out Urd's theory.

But so far there was nothing. The way she looked, the way she moved, it was all Belldandy. The tune she hummed a she worked was one he had heard her hum a hundred times before. The smile on her face was picture perfect. After an hour of staring at her, he had nothing more to go on than Urd's word.

In the past three years, that had been enough. But...

It was _Belldandy_, dammit!

How could he...

"Why don't you go to her?"

The boy started and turned to find Peorth leaning against the shed. She offered him a knowing smile and walked toward him.

"Hey," he said casually.

"Why don't you go to her?" Peorth asked again, leaning against the Beember. "Now is the time, Keiichi. After three years of knowing life without her, do you really want to just let the days go by?"

"Oh," he said, looking down at his tool box and making a production of looking for a wrench. "I'm just... waiting for a better time."

"There is no better time, Keiichi," Peorth told him. "It's obvious she feels the same. Stop waiting. Go to her."

He tapped the wrench against his thigh and bit his lip. "It's not that simple," he said.

Peorth laughed. "How simple must it be?" she asked. "You go to her, you take her in your arms and you tell her you love her and want to be with her. It's the simplest thing in the world to do."

Keiichi thought for a moment, then, checking over his shoulder to make sure Belldandy was still on the porch, he beckoned Peorth to crouch down next to him.

Once the goddess was within whisper range, he licked his lips and told her quietly, "That might not be Belldandy."

Peorth blinked and sighed as she realized what must have happened. "Keiichi..."

"Urd's off checking it out," he told her. "So... until she gets back..."

The rose goddess cut him off. "Arretez," she snapped quietly. "Arretez." She took a breath and gave him an angry look. "Urd told you this, non?"

"Yeah," he whispered. "She said she thinks it's someone else."

Peorth stood up and put her hands on either side of her head, wondering if she should do what she was now contemplating. Keiichi watched her, wondering what the problem was.

The goddess took a breath and knelt next to him again, taking his hands in her own. "Keiichi, there is nothing wrong with Belldandy."

"Look, I want to think so too, and we're probably right, but Urd..."

"Urd's not.... in the right frame of mind right now," Peorth told him.

He blinked at the statement. "What do you mean?"

She sighed, trying to find some way to explain it without diming out her friend. That thought made her angry. Why was she protecting Urd? The goddess was obviously off her rocker.

Peorth bit her lip. "Urd doesn't _want_ that to be Belldandy."

"Oh, come on," he said. "That's just stupid."

"Urd's in love with you," Peorth told him seriously.

888

Seven years later, Urd held a finger up and bit her lip, too angry to speak. Finally, she opened her mouth again and ground out, "If there is _one_ reason... just one reason... that goddess is no longer allowed in this house... it's _that_."

Belldandy just watched as her sister seethed.

"I wanted to tell him in my own way," she said. "And she took that from me. That's why, to this day, Peorth doesn't cross that threshold."

The younger goddess looked down at the table top. "I'm sorry to hear that," she said. "Peorth is a good friend."

"Yeah, well she can be your friend all you want," Urd told her. "But not here."

"What did Keiichi say?" Belldandy asked.

Urd sighed. "He always got vague when we talked about it," she said. "He never said so, but I think... I think he believed Peorth. That I was... unstable."

Belldandy looked at her sympathetically.

"He doesn't say that," she said. "And I don't ask. Because if I did, he wouldn't lie. He'd tell me. And I don't want to put him through that."

"So what happened?"

_Seven years ago..._

Urd was ready to pull her hair out. Desdemona's "helpful" information, was proving to be anything but. She had gone to the Aeronautics Club office to use Keiichi's computer, figuring a quick internet search would clear up the mystery of the two names.

Unfortunately, "Yanagida" brought up 447,000 hits, starting with a nanobiology laboratory. "Kobura" was better. Only 22,200 hits.

She picked up the phone. If she couldn't figure this out, she was going to need some help. The phone rang on the other end and picked up.

It was Sif's voicemail again. She sighed.

"Sif, it's me again," she said. "Listen, as soon as you get this, come find me, but _don't_ go to the temple. I don't know who she is, but she's not Belldandy. If you run into her, be careful."

She hung up and tapped the phone with her fingernail. "Yanagida" was simply too common a name. She decided to concentrate on Kobura. She went down the list.

Kobura was an artist on DeviantArt.... and an episode of Chop Socky Chooks....a karate dojo...

Dammit.

She got up and started out the door, making her way to the vending machine that sat next to where the Shinden was tied down. Buying a beer, she popped the top and leaned against the Shinden with a sigh.

"Kobura," she whispered. "Kobura... Kobura..."

Nope, still nothing.

_What about Kobura?_

She blinked and turned to the airplane. "What?" she asked.

Nothing.

She realized what she was doing wrong and reached out, touching the aircraft's skin. "What was that?" she asked.

_I said, 'what _about_ Kobura?'_ the Shinden replied.

Urd's mouth opened in shock. "You _know_ what Kobura is?" she asked.

_Sure, I do,_ the plane said. _It's an island about halfway between here and Okinawa. _

The goddess gasped at her good luck. "Wait, how do you know about it?"

_Because Keiichi and I have been there._

Urd shook her head. "Wait, what?!"

Realizing people were beginning to stare, she climbed up the ladder and sat down in the Shinden's cockpit, pulling the canopy down and sealing it. "Okay, start at the beginning."

_It was right after the Okinawa air show,_ the Shinden told her. _We had a maintenance issue, and we put down at an old airfield on the south end of the island..._

The memory came back to Urd. "Is that where he got scratched up?" Urd asked.

_Yeah... He was pretty scratched up when we left..._

Urd held up a hand and stopped the airplane. "Let's not jump ahead. I need to hear all of it."

_Alright,_ the Shinden said. _Anyway, we set down, and Keiichi climbed up on the wing to fix the engine. He finished, closed the hatch and then... just like that... he fell off the wing._

"Okay," Urd said, following along so far. "Then what?"

_Well, he got up, and I asked if he was okay... then... he turned and walked to the treeline... without a word..._

"Did he say anything?" Urd asked.

_Yeah... He said, 'Belldandy.'_

Urd digested that. "Then what?"

_He went into the jungle,_ the Shinden shared. _A half-hour later, he came running out of the jungle like he was being chased by Corsairs. He got in, covered in scratches, and started to take-off. He was so spooked, he redlined the engines. I had to talk him down. If I hadn't, we would have ditched._

Urd rested her head against the seat as she thought. She remembered how jittery he was when he got home, covered in bloody welts that she had to heal with her touch.

"Something chased him out of there," she said. "Something so awful he bled himself to get out of the jungle faster." She turned her attention back to the plane. "Did you see anyone else?"

_Not a soul._

Okay, so what was the connection between Kobura and Belldandy? Keiichi wasn't being chased now. "Do you know where this island is?"

_Yeah._ The right-hand display came to life, showing a set of GPS coordinates.

Urd made a note of them and nodded. "Thanks," she said, popping the canopy.

_So what's going on?_ the Shinden asked.

Urd answered as she climbed out of the cockpit. "Keiichi's in trouble." She hopped down from the ladder and went to the office. Picking up the phone, she dialed the temple.

"Hello?" Belldandy's voice came on.

The Norn froze. She started to hang up, but Belldandy's voice stopped her.

"Neesan? Is that you?"

Urd didn't move.

"I can hear your breathing..."

The Norn hung up.

888

Belldandy hung up the phone and gave the matter some thought. Why would Urd hang up on her?

Unless, of course, she knew.

She reached down behind the tiny cabinet upon which the phone sat and jerked the cable out of the wall.

She was beginning to question her course of action in regards to her sister. At first, feeling the grief in the goddess's soul, Belldandy thought she would be a fine addition to her collection once she took Keiichi. It would just require a little more time.

Now she was beginning to wonder. One thing was for sure, she would have to accelerate things considerably, and that meant either dealing with Urd or bringing Keiichi back to the island sooner than she thought.

It vexed her greatly that she still didn't have the key to Keiichi's heart. Without it, she couldn't take him fully. But that was all right. Once she got him to the island, she would have all the time she needed to pull the information from his heart, and once she had that...

A pity... She would prefer to have both. The Norn's grief was as palpable as Keiichi's. When she was through with Keiichi, she would return for Urd.

It had been a long time since her last meal. The prospect of two so close together made her salivate.

Soon she would not only feed, she would feast.

888

It took hours for the Shinden to get from Kobura to Nekomi, but Stringfellow made the trip in forty-five minutes. The sun was starting to go down as her feet touched the aging concrete of the abandoned airfield, casting the beach, trees and what remained of the buildings in a dull copper light.

She rested Stringfellow against the side of one of the buildings and looked out at the jungle. Taking a breath, she started for the tree line, stopping just short of the edge of the jungle. Summoning a ball of light to her hand, she pushed into the foliage, pushing vines and branches out of the way.

"Where are you?" she whispered.

The goddess shook her head bitterly as she made her way through the jungle. What was she even looking for? Whatever it was, it could be anywhere.

Well, yes and no. Whatever she was looking for was within a half-hour's walk. She would just have to look for something out of the...

One minute it wasn't there, the next it was. That's the way the jungle worked. When you couldn't see a foot in front of you, that's when things surprised you.

It was less a hut and more a collection of dead vines wrapped and twisted in a bizarre pattern, as if someone had surrounded a giant egg with vines until not a speck of white could be seen. Black sap oozed between them, sealing them together. At the base before her was a hole about three feet high.

It was obviously a den, for what she didn't know.

She didn't want to go in there for a hundred reasons, not least of which was the fact that there could be anything in there waiting for her to stick a hand in. She decided to show some discretion and held her other hand up.

Instead of light, she summoned lightning, a ball of blue-black electricity formed in her hand, growing in intensity every second until she was sure it was well primed. Then, kneeling in front of the hole, she tossed it inside.

She watched it bounce into the den and come to a stop before turning away and covering her eyes. The flash from the ball didn't escape the black sap and vines, but a tunnel of light emerged from the entrance, letting her know her little light-mass bomb had gone off.

A little more sure of her safety now, she crawled into the hole and stood up inside...

Inside a nightmare.

Skeletons lined the walls of the ten-meter diameter chamber, each sitting as if they had just gotten tired and decided to rest. Scraps of cloth still hung on some of them. She recognized an American flag on the shoulder of one of them. On another sat a steel helmet.

Urd covered her mouth with her hand, becoming cognizant of the stench inside the chamber. Turning about, her eyes came to rest on a skeleton on the far side of the chamber, something shiny hanging from a chain around its neck. She stepped over the corpse and reached out, thinking it was jewelry. Instead, she found a pair of old dog-tags. She brought the light closer and read the name on them.

"Yanagida Tetsuo," she whispered.

She must have put too much pressure on the tags. Yanagida's skull fell forward, touching her hand.

And in a flash, she was in another place and time.

It was dark, and she could hear the sounds of propellers nearby. She looked around, trying to see through the blackness.

A new sound and a flash of orange light drew her attention to the right. Someone had struck a match, and she watched as a young man in a Japanese uniform lit a cigarette. He stood there, his rifle slung and a bored expression on his face that could only come with guard duty.

She looked around again and found they were on the side of a road. The runway was perhaps a half-mile away, and they were alone.

"Hello?" she tried, but the soldier ignored her.

_Tetsuo..._

She heard it in her mind the same moment he heard it. Both their heads whipped around, searching for the voice, but only the soldier seemed to recognize it.

"Natsumi?" he whispered in shock.

_Tetsuo... In here... Help me..._

The soldier, barely twenty years old by the look of him, unslung his rifle and started looking around. "Where?! Where are you?!"

_Here..._

Tetsuo and Urd looked to the same place at the same time... the jungle. The soldier started toward the trees, and Urd followed.

888

"Keiichi san?" Belldandy asked inquisitively as she looked down at the boy. "Are you all right?" She scooped another ladle of soup, not her best by the way, into his bowl and waited for him to answer.

"Yeah," he whispered. "I've just got a lot on my mind."

Sitting opposite the boy, Peorth and Skuld said nothing. The rose goddess, believing she had done enough damage, decided not to do anymore.

"Would you like to talk about it?" she asked.

"No," he answered truthfully. He busied himself with spooning soup into his mouth.

The goddess sat next to him and looked down at the table in thought. "Keiichi san," she began, "I'm aware that things have changed between us."

He looked up at her, Peorth and Skuld following the exchange with interest.

"You are?" he asked.

"Hai," she said. "We once shared a deep connection, and I can feel how that connection is no longer as strong as it once was."

Keiichi bit his lip and looked away. "Yeah," he replied quietly.

She moved closer to him and turned to the others. "Peorth... Skuld... may I have a moment with Keiichi san?"

"Oui," Peorth said quickly, taking Skuld's arm before she could protest and leading her out of the kitchen.

Belldandy waited until they were gone. "Keiichi san, I miss that closeness."

"So do I," he told her. "I missed it every day."

She rested a hand on his arm. "I want to feel it again, Keiichi," she whispered, moving closer to him.

Keiichi felt his body start to warm the way it did when he drank too much. "So do I," he repeated.

Belldandy looked demurely away. "I don't think we can do that here," she told him quietly. "This place... it's full of too many fresh memories of our time apart." She turned back to him and nuzzled his cheek. Keiichi closed his eyes, his mind entering a dense fog. "We need to create new memories... in a new place... Will you come away with me, Keiichi san?"

"Of course I will," he whispered drunkenly.

She smiled. "Wonderful. We'll go away together. It'll be a vacation. Just you and me. Would you like that, Keiichi san?"

"Yeah..."

She had him where she wanted him. But she needed his heart completely. She couldn't take him without it.

"Keiichi san?" she whispered into his hear.

"Yeah, Bell...dan...dy?"

"Love me," she whispered huskily into his ear. Her fingers gently nudged his head toward hers, and their lips touched. "Love me and only me," she whimpered as they parted again. "Lo..."

"Where are the damn paper towels?!" Skuld cried from the other room.

Keiichi's eyes fluttered open and found Belldandy sitting nonchalantly in front of her plate. "They're in the bottom cabinet, Skuld chan!" she called before turning to Keiichi.

"Belldandy?" he asked, shaking his head.

She smiled. "Keiichi san, I'm so excited. A trip to the islands! I can't wait!"

He shook his head again. Trip? Islands?

Oh, wait...

That's right... They were going on vacation... to rekindle their relationship. He remembered now. How could he forget?

"Aren't you excited?" Belldandy asked happily. "I've never seen islands before. Should I bring a swimsuit?"

"Yeah," he answered dumbly. "Yeah, that would be a good idea," he went on as he gathered steam. "Some sunblock too. Your skin's kind of pale so you probably burn easily."

"Oh, I think I have a hat somewhere too..." she said.

He smiled and gave a little chuckle. "If not, I'm sure we can get one when we land."

She turned and grabbed hold of his hands. "Can we leave tonight, Keiichi san?" she asked.

Keiichi nodded happily. "Yeah! You know what? I can sign out one of the Cessnas."

"Wonderful! Just you and me!"

"Just you and me," he repeated.

Belldandy smiled.

888

Urd followed Tetsuo deeper into the jungle. Every time the soldier faltered, the voice of Natsumi reached out to them, urging them to hurry.

The goddess had made some conclusions based on what the young soldier had been saying in response to "Natsumi." The girl was his wife, and she had died recently in the fire-bombing of Tokyo.

Tetsuo stepped through a thicket of trees and stopped short. Urd pushed her way to his side and looked out.

There, standing before them, was a beautiful young woman in a blue kimono. She smiled at Tetsuo and held her hands out.

"Tetsuo, you came for me... I knew you would..."

A broad, stupid grin broke out on the soldier's face. "Natsumi chan," he gasped. "You're all right!"

"Of course I am," Natsumi told him. "Come to me, Tetsuo. Show me the secret of your heart."

Urd watched as the boy dropped his gun and ran forward into the woman's arms. Natsumi took his head in her hands and kissed him deeply.

"Do you love me, Tetsuo?" she asked between kisses.

"Yes!"

"Me and only me?"

"Yes!"

"There is no other in your heart?"

"Of course not! Only you!"

She kissed him again, and Urd watched, horrified as Tetsuo's hair began to turn white. The skin on his hands began to shrivel and flake away. And the entire time he was disintegrating, he continued kissing Natsumi, blissfully unaware of what was happening to him.

He didn't even scream. He just stood there and kissed her while he died.

Finally, when all that remained was a dessicated bag of meat and bones, Natsumi dropped him and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Taking Tetsuo by the ankle, she dragged him into the jungle...

Urd blinked and shook her head, taking a step back inside the den as Tetsuo's skull hit the ground at her feet. Unable to see anymore, she turned and crawled on her hands and knees through the hole in the den until she could make out starlight on the other side.

As she emerged from the chamber, someone waiting on the other side, held out a hand to her.

888

"I think it's wonderful," Peorth told him as Keiichi continued to pack. Seeing him as happy as he was now, Peorth decided that leveling with Keiichi had been the right thing to do. "Stealing away in the night for the tropics! It's all very romantic!"

"Yeah," Keiichi said, grinning from ear to ear. "I don't know how I ever could have thought she was anything but Belldandy."

Peorth frowned guiltily. "What about Urd?"

Keiichi froze. It was like a computer screen suddenly freezing with the pointer turning into an hourglass. "Urd?" he asked.

"Oui," Peorth said. "What about her?"

He looked up and smiled. "I owe Urd a lot," he said. "I'm just sorry that this hurts her that much."

Peorth nodded sadly. "I'll stay... and explain things to her."

"Thanks, Peorth," he said.

"So when do you leave?"

"I'm going on ahead," he told her. "To gas up the plane, load our luggage and stuff. Belldandy is going to meet me at the airport. She said there were a few things to take care of."

"How about I join you?" she asked.

"Sure," he said. "The more, the merrier."

888

Urd looked up at the woman offering her hand with a mixture of anger and disgust and made no move to take it.

Hild smiled down at her. "Hey, pun'kin," she said in greeting.

"You did this," Urd hissed.

The CEO of Hell snorted and pulled her hand back. "Oh, you can't blame me for this, little one," she said. "You're not going to believe this, but it really is all a coincidence."

"Oh, sure!" Urd cried sarcastically as she climbed to her feet. "Which is why you're here at the scene of the crime!"

"I came here," Hild bit out, "To save your life. You have no idea the kind of thing that hunts you, you and Keiichi both."

"One of yours?" Urd spat.

Hild shook her head. "No, not mine." She turned away and took a few steps. "Much older than even me, if you can believe that."

Urd watched her warily, still convinced this whole thing was somehow orchestrated by her mother.

"Then what is she?"

Hild leaned against a tree and stretched her arms over her head. Urd saw the vial holding her sister peek out from between her mother's breasts for a moment before her attention went back to the archdemoness.

"She's a force of nature, sweetie," she said. "A Titan. Banished by the Almighty One aeons upon aeons ago."

"A Titan?" Urd asked. "One of the first gods?"

Hild nodded. "When the Titans rebelled against the Almighty, they were defeated in short order. But he simply couldn't kill them. Many were essential to how Creation ran and couldn't be killed without destroying it. So he elected to simply change them into their base form." She gave her daughter a nod. "The System Force that you know so well, for instance. He was a Titan. Now, he's just a force."

"And this Titan?" Urd demanded.

Hild checked her nails as she answered. "Originally, she was Love. But when the Almighty reduced her... she became the dark elements of what she was, Love Lost. She lives in darkness and feeds on the love of others. Their love and their grief mixed. When some foolish mortal comes by, she reads their heart, finds the love they lost and takes its form. And then she has them."

Urd nodded slowly. "When Keiichi landed here, she read him... and took Belldandy's form."

The archdemoness nodded with a smile.

"But he got away," Urd went on. "He didn't fall into the trap."

"His heart was conflicted," Hild told her with a knowing smile. "While his heart did have grief, it also possessed hope bourne by another." She gave her daughter a wink.

"So she went after him," Urd continued, oblivious to her mother's point. "And followed him to Nekomi." She blinked. "So... wait a second, if all she has to do is suck the love out of him, why is she playing house in Nekomi?"

"Could you imagine the havoc she would wreak if she could just wander the Earth at will?" Hild asked. "Her power is centered here. She can only feed here. And by my reckoning, she hasn't eaten in something close to sixty-five years."

Urd took in her mother's words as she continued.

"She took a form specifically for Keiichi," Hild continued. "She smells blood, and like a bloodhound, she will track him until she has him treed, then drag him back here."

"So why do you care?" Urd asked suddenly.

Hild's smile lost some of its shine. "I came to tell you not to challenge her."

"That's a joke, right?" Urd asked snidely.

The archdemoness turned on her. "You may not believe this, Urd, but I love you. I don't want to see you hurt... but I'd rather see you hurt than dead. This thing... She cannot be killed, do you understand that? She is a force of nature."

"How strong is she?" Urd asked seriously.

"She can assume the powers of the form she's taken, and she took a form from Keiichi's mind," Hild told her. "So... she's only as strong as Keiichi's opinion of Belldandy." She smiled at the irony.

Urd sighed. "Then I'm fucked, huh?"

Hild regarded her seriously. "Don't fight her. Give her Keiichi. Give her what she wants, and she'll come back here."

"I'm not giving her Keiichi," Urd said, turning back toward the jungle.

"Urd, I'll make you a deal," Hild said. The Norn stopped in her tracks. "I offered you a trade once, remember? New trade: Belldandy for Keiichi. Let the Titan have him, save yourself, and I'll release Belldandy."

Urd turned on her like a startled snake. "I will _not_ give that _thing_ Keiichi!" she hissed. "And if you're too frightened to help me, then stay the Hell out of the way!"

She started to leave again.

"Urd!"

She turned and raised a hand just in time to catch a pair of silver rings. She looked down at them and realized they had come from her mother's own hands.

"Those will help when all else fails," Hild told her. "Don't use them."

"You gave me a weapon I can't use?" Urd asked.

"What I've given you is spite," Hild growled in annoyance. "Those rings will beat her back, but they do so by channeling every last ounce of energy you have within you. You can buy Keiichi's freedom with them... at the expense of your life."

Urd regarded the rings cautiously and pocketed them. "Thanks," she muttered.

Hild watched her leave and sighed.

888

Urd pushed her way out of the jungle, thorned branches striking her face in the dark as she rushed toward the air base and Stringfellow.

She wished she knew what to think of her mother's words. Could she trust Hild's advice? Could this fake Belldandy really be that powerful?

The goddess cleared the treeline and dashed for the broom. Grabbing the enchanted cleaning implement's handle, she quickly straddled it.

"Keiichi's in trouble, String," she said. "Show me the meaning of haste."

Stringfellow lifted into the air and shot off for Japan.

888

Keiichi loaded the two small bags into the sidecar before clapping his hands off and turning to the goddesses. "Okay, that's it," he said.

"I can't believe you're leaving," Skuld pouted. "You _just_ got back!"

Belldandy smiled. "Skuld, Keiichi and I need this in order to heal our hearts," she said. "Please support us in this."

The young goddess sighed. "Okay, Oneesama," she murmured.

"Okay," Keiichi broke in. "I'm going to go to the hangar to get the plane ready," he said.

Belldandy nodded. "Hai. I want to take care of a few things here, and I'll meet you there." She turned to Skuld. "Skuld, why don't you go with Keiichi? I'm sure he could use some help."

"I'd rather stay with..."

The goddess brightened at this. "You could help me clean!" she cried happily. "I still have to dust, and finish the last of the laundry and..."

"You know, I really should check over Keiichi's plane," Skuld interrupted with a nervous chuckle. "You know... safety and all..."

Belldandy smiled. "Thank you!"

"C'mon, Keiichi," Peorth said. "I'll give you a hand too."

Belldandy watched them leave and stepped into the shrine, kicking off her shoes before stepping up to the small altar opposite the Buddha. She wasn't really going to do any last minute chores. After all, she had no intention of ever returning to this place.

She lit a few candles and fell to her knees in prayer. She didn't have to wait long before the sound of footfalls floated to her ears from behind her.

"Hello, Neesan," Belldandy said, not bothering to turn her head or even open her eyes. "I knew you would come."

"Just wanted to say goodbye before leaving for good," Urd told her, stepping closer to the Titan.

"Oh?" Belldandy asked. "I'm afraid Keiichi's already gone."

She heard the footsteps suddenly halt and smiled. "Yes," she went on. "He's at the airport. We're flying away together."

"To Kobura?"

Belldandy opened her eyes and smiled. "What is the secret of Keiichi's heart?" she asked. "I know you know what it is."

Urd took another step toward her and raised a hand, pointing a finger at the back of her sister's head. Just a quick channel of lightning and...

There was a flash, and before she realized it, Urd was flying backwards, her back striking the Buddha statue before falling to the polished wood floor in a daze. She blinked and tried to get up, but her knees failed, and her butt hit the ground again. She took a breath and tried to shake the stars from her eyes.

Belldandy turned her head and smiled, a lock of chestnut hair falling in front of her eyes. She slowly rose to her feet and turned, the sound of her bare feet on the wood floor falling on Urd like hammerstrokes.

The Norn coughed and again tried to rise as Belldandy knelt before her.

"Oh, Neesan," Belldandy said sympathetically, taking the goddess's face in her hands. "I would have given you peace and love. I still want to. You just have to wait your turn."

Urd groaned weakly, her sad eyes looking into Belldandy's.

"Don't worry," Belldandy told her with a gentle smile as she leaned toward her. "The wait will be short. Keiichi will not live long..." As she said this her lips brushed against Urd's in a loving kiss.

Urd reached up, her fingers running through the Titan's hair...

... before grabbing a handful of it and slamming the woman's head into the floor.

Dazed, Belldandy rested on her hands and knees as Urd shot to her feet and circled to her left.

"Twisted, incestuous _bitch!_" Urd growled before kicking the Titan in the midsection and sending her flying through the paper shoji doors of the temple's entrance and down the steps. Drawing power to her will, Urd clapped her hands together. With a thunderclap and a pulse of energy, a lightning bolt shot from the heavens and struck the Titan outside.

The explosion launched rocks, dirt and debris into the air and all over the temple. Urd clapped the dust off her hands and smiled.

"That oughtta do it."

She had barely finished her final clap when the dust at the explosion's epicenter cleared, revealing a smiling Belldandy standing in the center of the crater without a care in the world.

Urd flinched at the sight, and before she could react, the Titan was right in front of her, her palm raised in front of her.

A blast of concentrated wind slammed into the Norn, tossing her across the room. She hit the floor and rolled, her feet striking the table on which the burning candles sat, knocking them to the floor.

One of them rolled against one of the paper walls, igniting it.

Urd pushed herself to her feet to find Belldandy on the other side of the temple. She quickly summoned more lightning, sending three of them down on the Titan in rapid succession, but each only struck empty space as Belldandy flew toward her. She grabbed Urd's hair and spun, throwing the goddess through another paper wall and into the residence.

Belldandy stepped through the hole in the wall left by Urd's passage even as flames began to lick at it from the other side.

Lying on her back, Urd saw the Titan approaching and flung a lightmass bomb at her even as she rolled to the left and into her room.

The bomb went off, flooding the hallway with white light as Urd pulled herself up on her workbench. She looked up and saw a cloud of white smoke engulfing the rafters, orange daggers of fire licking at the straining supports.

Thinking fast, she grabbed a handful of random vials from her cupboard, but before she could turn, she felt the other woman's hands grab her shoulders, Dropping half of what she had collected, Urd braced her foot against the cupboard and kicked out, knocking them both off-balance and landing on the floor in a heap.

Twisting around, Urd straddled the Titan and undid the stopper on a vial, but before she could upend it on her, Belldandy's hands snatched her wrists and jerked them to the right. The vial flew out of Urd's hands and hit the wall, exploding in a ball of green flame.

The Norn felt the air pressure change around her and braced herself as the fake goddess unleashed a wind blast into her, knocking the Norn into the ceiling.

Urd hit the ground with a thud and coughed as Belldandy grabbed the back of her shirt. Again, Urd was airborne as the Titan threw her through the other wall into the living room.

"It didn't have to be this way, Neesan," Belldandy told her as Urd rolled onto her stomach to push herself up again. "If you tell me the key to Keiichi's heart... I'll grant you your life."

The fire had spread into the living room by now, the pictures on the bookshelf cracking and breaking in the heat before the pictures behind the glass started to discolor and burn. Urd could feel the Titan standing over her and started to get up, but another blast of air pressure slammed into her back, knocking her _through_ the floor.

Urd coughed and rolled onto her back, raising her hands and sending a flurry of lightning bolts at the woman above her. Belldandy flung herself back and out of the way. Seeing her chance, Urd coughed through the smoke that was filling the hole and leapt up into the house.

White smoke filled the entire residence now, and Urd couldn't look in any direction without seeing fire, but she could see no sign of Belldandy.

She coughed and covered her nose and mouth with her arm, searching fruitlessly. Turning right, she caught a glimpse of trees and stars, the front door was open.

Urd rushed for the door, planning on taking the party outside.

"Neesan!"

She turned just inside the doorway and saw Belldandy standing behind her, a bow nocked with an arrow that swirled with wind as if the arrowhead were a self-contained storm. The goddess brought her hand up to fire a lightning bolt, but Belldandy released the wind arrow.

Urd felt a sharp burning in her chest as she was knocked off her feet and thrown into the front doorframe. She fell to the floor, sprawled on her back, the arrow jutting from her right breast.

Belldandy stood over her, the bow evaporating from her hand like the mist from dry ice. She regarded the unconscious Norn for a moment before turning and casually strolling to the front door, stepping into a pair of sandals even as the house burned and collapsed around her.

As she stepped off the last stair, she blinked and looked quickly to her right, searching for something she thought she heard but saw nothing. It didn't matter. She had to go meet Keiichi.

Leaping into the air, she landed on a telephone pole and started making her way to the airport, leaving the temple and the Norn to burn behind her.


	25. Where Shall We Shelter? Part 3

ADMIN NOTE: Hey, folks. Just a couple of notes here. First, if you're so inclined, go on over to the forums section and check out Peorth's Crash and Burn Line to see an interview with fic author WillZ. It's a new feature we're trying out, and if you've got an opinion, please respond or just participate in the attached poll.

Disclaimer: AMG and FMP aren't mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 25**

**Where Shall We Shelter? Where Shall We Sleep? Part 3**

"_Light the sky and hold on tight,_

_The world is burning down..."_

_Shawn Colvin_

"_Sunny Came Home"_

Urd reached behind her and unbuttoned her shirt, making it easier for her to lower the neckline until it showed the top of her right breast.

Belldandy saw the scar left by the wind arrow and sighed for her sister.

"Teletha's people airbrush it out of the photos," Urd told her with a smile. "I told Keiichi I should just get a tattoo over it, but he won't let me, says it's a part of me... so he loves it too."

The younger Norn said nothing as Urd buttoned her shirt again. "Still," she went on, "For a girl who makes a living being sexy... it's kind of annoying."

"How did you get out?" Belldandy asked quietly.

"Fortunately for me," Urd said with a smile, "I'm not the only girl who loves Keiichi Morisato."

_Seven years ago..._

A burning rafter hit the floor barely five feet from where Urd's unconscious form lay, the paper and wood that made up eighty percent of the house and temple were now the fodder for a raging inferno.

Urd's chest glowed white, and a moment later her higher self was rising from her body like a phoenix. World of Elegance waved her hand in front of her mistress's eyes, trying to wake her up.

She took Urd by the shoulders and tried to shake her awake as the temple collapsed around them. The angel looked up suddenly as rushed footsteps thundered into her ears from the front steps. The owner of those footfalls could barely be seen through the smoke, and the angel could just make a mop of brown hair and a head half covered with a jacket tied around the person's face to keep the smoke out.

The mortal stared at Elegance for a moment in utter shock, but got over it quickly. Kneeling down, the newcomer lifted Urd by the shoulders and strained to drag the goddess out of the temple. Elegance followed, and the mortal pulled Urd down the front steps and as far away from the blaze as possible. By now sirens could be heard in the distance.

The mortal looked at the angel again and continued pulling the goddess toward the carnival, not stopping until they were secluded behind the mirror tent just inside the gate.

The figure unwrapped the jacket from her face and stared at Elegance before putting aside the first question on her mind and asking the second instead.

"Is anyone else in there?!" Megumi asked.

World of Elegance shook her head in a "no."

"What happened?!" Megumi demanded. "Where's Kei chan and the others?! And what are you?!"

Before Elegance could attempt to explain through charades, Urd moaned below them, and Megumi turned her attention toward the goddess.

"Urd?" Megumi coached softly. "Urd? Are you okay?" The mortal girl looked at the wind arrow embedded in her friend's chest and shook her head, not sure what to think.

The goddess's eyes fluttered open, and she tried to sit up, giving up after a painful cry and falling back to the ground. Her eyes found the arrow and squeezed closed painfully.

"GET THIS THING OUT OF ME!" she shouted at them.

Megumi, not sure what to do but spurred on by Urd's tone, grabbed the shaft of the arrow with both hands and pulled. Urd screamed in agony as the wind arrow slowly gave way, finally coming out of the goddess with a jerk. Megumi watched mystified as the arrow disintegrated before her eyes.

Urd took several deep breaths and nodded her thanks to Megumi. She looked to her right and saw the flames and smoke from the temple, shutting her eyes in grief for a moment before rising to her feet.

"Woah!" Megumi cried. "Not so fast! Give it a minute."

The goddess relented and nodded.

"And as long as you're hanging out," Megumi began, "You can tell me what the hell is going on!"

"Oh," Urd breathed, thrown off balance. "I was cooking some stir fry, and there was a grease fire..."

"Oh, and bear in mind I've already seen the floaty thing," Megumi told her darkly, nodding to World of Elegance.

Urd turned and saw her angel give her a sheepish wave.

"Oh... right," she muttered. "Okay, um..."

"The truth would be nice," Megumi pointed out. "Since I saved your life and all."

"Right," Urd breathed, sitting up. "Okay, I don't have time for the whole truth, but here's the highlights. Belldandy, Skuld, Peorth, Sif and I are goddesses, and Belldandy isn't in California, she's been sealed by a demon named Hild, and the Belldandy who's been here the last two days isn't Belldandy at all, she's a monster called a Titan who wants to suck your brother's soul out of his face."

"You lost me after 'goddess,'" Megumi admitted.

Urd held her hands up in front of her face and allowed an arc of black lightning to flow between them.

Megumi looked at her wide-eyed. "Okay, go on," she said.

The goddess stood up unsteadily. "Your brother's in trouble," she said. "That thing is going to take him to an island called Kobura. When they get there, she's going to kill him. I gotta stop her."

"You don't look like you're in any condition to stop anything!" Megumi argued. She pulled out her cell phone. "Let's just call the police."

Urd put her hand on the woman's cell to keep her from dialing. "When Godzilla attacks the mainland, do you just call the police?"

"Of course not!" Megumi argued. "We also have the U.N. and their sonic cannons!"

The goddess sighed and stood up, walking around a bit to get the feeling back in her legs. "I'll take care of the Titan," she said. "I just need a few minutes... and an edge."

"So..." Megumi began. "Goddesses, huh? How did you all get here?"

"Like I said, it's a long story," Urd told her. "Your brother qualified for a wish from the Almighty. Belldandy was sent to grant it. He wished for her to always be by his side."

"He always was a romantic," Megumi told her.

Urd shook her head. "Yeah." She turned to the mortal and raised an eyebrow. "So what are you doing here?"

Megumi shrugged. "I was on my way to see you guys, say hi to Belldandy, you know?" Megumi answered. "When I got closer, I saw the fire and called the fire department. When I got to the front yard, I saw Belldandy shoot you and then just... walk out as if nothing happened. I didn't know what was going on, so I ducked behind a tree. I thought she saw me for a minute, then she... jumped... away. Weird..."

They paused for a moment as Urd collected herself. "So... what are you going to do?" Megumi asked.

Urd reached into her pocket and pulled out the silver rings her mother gave her. "I got something," she said. "Something that'll send her away."

"You don't sound like you want to use it," Megumi told her with an arched eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's kind of a last-resort thing..."

"So, I guess we shouldn't use it," Megumi said, rising to her feet. "So where are they?"

"The airport," Urd said as Megumi started punching buttons on her cell phone. She shook her head and muttered. "I keep telling you two to get cell phones."

"If we get out of this, I swear the first thing I get will be a cell phone," Urd growled to her.

Megumi held the phone to her ear for several moments then shook her head.

"No answer."

Urd bit her lip. "Dammit." She turned away, tapping her hips with her hands in thought. "She said she needs the key to his heart," she whispered. "The key to Keiichi's heart." She turned back to Megumi. "Okay, you know him better than anyone. What's the key to Keiichi's heart?"

The mortal blinked at her. "The key to his _heart_?" she asked. She smiled. "C'mon, you don't know?"

The goddess sighed in frustration. "No, okay, I don't know. What is it? Airplanes? Motorcycles? What?"

Megumi's smile brightened into a knowing one. "Urd, the key to a person's heart isn't a thing, it's a person."

Urd's eyes went wide as she realized the truth of what Megumi was saying. The mortal nodded at her silent epiphany...

...and her smile disappeared a moment later when Urd pointed at her. "Quick! Call Kiyoshi and warn her!"

Megumi growled and pointed her cell phone at her, quickly taking a picture.

"What are you doing?!" Urd demanded.

"Taking a picture of this!" Megumi shot back. "So I can print it out and give it to you for study, because this, Urd, this moment right here, this is what the fuck is wrong with you and Keiichi both!"

Urd looked away.

"Look, Urd, knowing that Belldandy didn't leave of her own free will... I guess I can understand better what you were doing," Megumi told her. "But it looks like it's not up to just you anymore. If this thing couldn't get Keiichi by appearing as Belldandy... if she's not the key to his heart anymore... then there's only one person who possibly could be."

"I don't want to hear this right now," Urd told her quietly. She didn't wait for Megumi to reply, walking across the carnival toward the street.

Megumi ran to catch up with her. "Why not!?" she demanded. "Urd, he's in love with you! And as soon as this whole thing is over with you can tell him how _you_ feel!" She held up a finger. "And don't you dare tell me you don't feel anything! I know you're in love with him!"

Urd stopped. "Megumi... this thing... this Titan... it's incredibly powerful," she said quietly. "I know you're trying to tell me that the future is suddenly looking bright, but... in an hour or so, I'll probably be dead. Because there might not be any other way to save Keiichi's life. I'm okay with that, but I don't want to hear all about the life I'm not going to live."

Megumi digested this. "So what do we do?"

888

Keiichi was just about done preparing for the trip, but there was still one piece of business he wanted to finish up before they left. Climbing the stand, he sat down in the Shinden's cockpit and got comfortable.

"Hey," he said.

_Hey._

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

He could almost feel the plane shrug in his mind. _I still don't want to fly. But I'm a little better, I guess._

"That's good," he said, excited by the news. "I just wanted to check on you and let you know I'm going to be out of town for awhile, but when I come back, we're going to work on this, okay?"

_Yeah, okay,_ the Shinden replied. _Where are you going?_

"My girlfriend came back," he said. "The one I told you about."

_Hey, that's great._

"Yeah, so we're going on vacation, try to reconnect, you know?"

_That's great, Keiichi, I'm really happy for you._

"Thanks," he said. He sighed a moment later.

_What is it?_

"I'm a little worried about Urd," he told her. Hearing what Peorth said, it put a lot of things in perspective, things the oldest Norn had said and done over the past three years suddenly had a much different spin than they did yesterday. He felt bad... for a variety of reasons... not least of which was the fact that if he had known...

_Why? _the Shinden broke in. _Because she went to Kobura?_

A white chill ran up his back, and he blinked. "What did you say?"

_Are you worried about Urd because she went to Kobura?_ the Shinden repeated. _I know you saw something there or something.... something scary. I think she was going to go check it out. But I think she'll be o..._

"Wait! Wait!" Keiichi cried, shaking his head. It was if he was waking up from a long dream. "What do you mean?! Why did Urd go there?!"

_I dunno. She was in here this afternoon asking about it, said you were in trouble. But I guess you can't be in _that_ much trouble if you're getting ready to go on vacation._

Keiichi started to shiver as things slowly fell into place. He looked up through the canopy glass as Belldandy walked into the hangar and greeted Peorth and Skuld.

"It followed me," he breathed. He put his hands on his head and winced in self-reproach. "It followed me!"

_What did?_

He ignored the question, his mind working overtime. Whatever it was must have followed him from Kobura. It took Belldandy's form, he saw it from the runway when it first lured him into the jungle. And since then...

The mortal mentally kicked himself for being so stupid. In the haze induced by her words, he had never thought to ask _which_ island she wanted to go to. Now he knew.

Keiichi watched the monster as it made chit-chat with his friends. He had to do something.

_Think, Morisato! Think!_ he thought.

Peorth. Urd said Peorth could take Belldandy in a fight. So he had to get to Peorth, but how to make her understand in time?

He had to somehow prove the monster wasn't Belldandy.

_Hey! You okay?!_ the Shinden demanded.

He bit his lip as he watched them. Maybe he could trick it, ask it something only Belldandy would know. But what to ask?

"It knows me," he whispered to himself. "It knew enough to know what to say, knew to make itself look like Belldandy in the first place. It knows what I know about her." He followed this logic to its disappointing conclusion. "So whatever I ask, she'll know the answer to."

_So ask it something you don't know,_ the Shinden suggested.

He blinked. "Huh? Then she'll just make up any..." His eyes went to Skuld, and inspiration struck.

The mortal licked his lips. Now that he knew what it was, he was just as scared now as he was on the island. The thing had almost gotten him then. Now...

"I really don't want to go out there," he muttered. He swallowed dryly and shut his eyes.

"_Once I made the decision to act, everything else was simple,"_ Hotaru's words came back to him. His eyes went to the metal box near the throttle where he kept her old straight razor.

_Keiichi?_

He set his jaw and popped the canopy, climbing down the ladder as the eyes of the three goddesses went to him. Keiichi took each rung one slow step at a time.

"Urd," he whispered. "I wish you were here now."

His foot touched concrete, and he turned, putting a smile on for their benefit. "Hey!" he called out.

"Keiichi san!" Belldandy cried. "There you are!"

"Here I am," he repeated dully. "We're um... we're almost ready to go. Just... just one or two things and we're in good shape."

"Wonderful!"

"Oneesama, are you _sure_ you want to leave?" Skuld asked her. "You don't have to go. I mean, there's a beach just down the street!"

"Skuld, cheri, there are things a couple do on vacation that they simply can't do at home," Peorth told her, offering Keiichi a wink.

Keiichi swallowed again. "Yeah, so... um..." He walked over to a maintenance work table and cleared his throat. "Hey, Belldandy?!"

The goddess/thing turned to him and smiled. "Hai?"

His hand rested on a large wrench before he turned to her. "What's your father's name?"

Belldandy stared at him. After a moment, she smiled. "Keiichi san, I don't see..."

"What's your father's name?" he repeated.

Skuld rolled her eyes. "It's..."

"Shut up, Skuld!" Keiichi cut her off, shocking her into silence. He turned back to Belldandy, his course firmly set now. "What's your dad's name?"

Belldandy faltered for a moment. She looked to Skuld, and again, Keiichi cut them off.

"Don't look at her!" he thundered. Belldandy looked at him in shock. "What is your father's name?"

Peorth chose this moment to inject herself into the conversation. "Keiichi! What is this all about?!"

"Keiichi san... I... I don't understand!" Belldandy cried, tears springing to her eyes. "Why are you doing this? Why are you so angry?"

He ignored her and addressed Peorth. "I don't know Belldandy's father's name," he told her, his angry eyes turning back to Belldandy. "And that means _you_ don't know either, isn't that right?"

Peorth looked from Keiichi to Belldandy and back again. "Cheri... you're not making any sense."

"It's not Belldandy," he hissed at her.

"Are you stupid?!" Skuld demanded.

Peorth, however, just sighed. "Keiichi, we've talked about this..."

"Keiichi san," Belldandy wept, coming dangerously close to destroying his resolve. "I don't know what's happening here, but please... you're breaking my heart."

He steeled his will. "His name."

Peorth stalked toward him, the look on her face beyond irritation and into outright anger. "Cheri, I don't think you appreciate your luck..."

Keiichi saw Belldandy raise her hand to Peorth's back and opened his mouth to shout a warning.

It was a too late, a blast of ice-blue energy struck Peorth dead in the back, knocking her into a nearby Cessna with enough force to knock the plane over.

The mortal grabbed the wrench off the table and took a step toward the thing, but with a fluid motion, her hand was now pointed at him, and a blast of wind knocked him over the table into the hangar wall.

As the wrench hit the floor with a clang, Belldandy looked at the two unconscious forms on the ground before turning a smile toward Skuld. The youngest goddess looked up at her sister in complete shock.

"O...Oneesama?"

Belldandy smiled and knelt next to her, running her hand through Skuld's raven hair. "Skuld chan," she said happily. "Help me get Keiichi san into that airplane."

Still in a state of shock, Skuld shook her head from side to side as she stared at her sister wide-eyed.

"Skuld!" Belldandy growled, taking the younger goddess by the front of her shirt. "Your big sister is asking you to do something!"

"Hey!"

The two of them looked up at the source of the call and found Urd floating just outside the open main doors of the hangar. She glared hatefully at Belldandy and pointed down at her.

"I'm not done with you yet." The anger and pain in the Norn's voice was palpable.

Belldandy stood up and started for Keiichi, intent on ignoring the Norn she had so easily defeated.

"I have what you want!" Urd announced quickly.

The Titan paused midstep.

"I have the key to Keiichi's heart," Urd told her.

Belldandy looked up at the goddess with loathing, wondering if she was telling the truth or not.

"You're going to have to come up here to get it," Urd bit out.

The Titan clenched her fists, and the air pressure in the hangar changed dramatically as the thing floated into the air until she was on the same level as Urd. Skuld watched from below as the two glared at each other like old west gunfighters before each simultaneously started firing energy bolts at the other.

They circled each other in the sky for a moment before the Titan blasted forward and grabbed hold of Urd's shirt, whirling around and throwing her further outside.

Before Skuld could move, she heard footsteps rapidly approach. Looking up, she saw Megumi racing forward and kneeling next to her brother. She slapped him gently on the cheeks a few times, but that seemed to have no effect.

"WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!" Skuld finally found the wherewithal to cry.

Megumi ran off and returned a moment later with a cup of water. "The thing that looks like Belldandy ain't Belldandy," she said hurriedly, splashing the water in Keiichi's face.

The boy sputtered and sat up in a panic.

"You okay?" Megumi asked quickly.

He looked from side to side, searching for Belldandy. "What happened?!"

"She knocked you and Peorth out," Skuld explained. "Then Urd sho..."

His eyes locked onto her. "Where's Urd?!"

Megumi pointed at the sky outside the hangar where purple and blue flashes of energy were arcing over one another in the sky as the two goddesses fought. "She's up there."

Keiichi looked up, wide-eyed, at the fireworks display occurring outside, swallowing dryly as he realized that Urd was up there fighting for her life. For six years he had seen this happen over and over, a goddess going into harm's way on his behalf. It was a feeling of helplessness he had battled time and time again... but this time...

"Come on," Megumi said, taking his arm to help him to his feet. "Urd says we need to get as far away as..."

He jumped to his feet, nearly pulling his sister's arm out of its socket. "Take care of Peorth," he ordered, running across the hangar.

"Wait!" Skuld cried. "Where are you going?!"

Keiichi hit the Shinden's ladder and raced up the rungs as if the floor was on fire. Jumping into the seat, he started the power-up procedures.

"Shinden, I need your help," he told her.

The fighter's engine roared to life.

888

Urd cried out and spun backwards as another wind-whip cut her shoulder. The bitch was fast, faster than Belldandy ever was. If what her mother said was true than she wasn't really fighting a copy of her sister, but the manifestation of Keiichi's highest opinion of her. That made things quite a bit different.

Her momentary musing came with a cost. Before she realized it, the Titan was on her again, grabbing her and throwing her through the air like a rag doll. Urd compensated and spun again, blasting out several lightning bolts without even aiming, just hoping to keep the thing's head down.

She knew, at best, this was going to be a zero-sum game. She was injured and outclassed, but if she could keep it distracted long enough, Megumi could get Keiichi out of the hangar and as far away from here as humanly possible.

And that might be enough.

Urd watched, dismayed and impressed, as the Titan managed to dodge her lightning attacks while moving inexorably forward until once again it was too late. Belldandy hit her dead on in a flying tackle that launched them both through the air...

888

"Negative, Nevada-One-Two-One-Papa-Papa!" Cake cried into her headset. "We have some kind of weird weather occurrence just off the airfield! You are _not_ cleared for take-off!"

"What the hell is that?" Kit Kat asked calmly, pointing at something moving very fast right toward the tower.

Cake looked out the window and blinked. "OH, CRAP! GET DOWN!"

She managed to push her friend to the floor just as whatever it was smashed through the window, flew right over them and crashed through the window on the other side, taking brick, mortal, glass and several pieces of computer equipment with it.

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!" Kit Kat screamed.

Cake coughed as she rose to her knees, blinking as she touched her headset. With a growl, she pulled the earphones off. "Whatever it was just knocked out our comms! We can't talk to anyone!"

888

Urd held tightly to the Titan, even as the ancient goddess plowed her through another hangar.

"Big mistake, granny," Urd growled to her. She reached up and planted the palm of her hand on Belldandy's forehead. "Let's see you dodge this."

The bolt of electricity went straight through the Titan's head, knocking her away from Urd and sending her hurtling end over end through the air. The Norn floated to a halt and watched in triumph as the Titan started falling toward the ground... only to deflate as Belldandy regained control and started flying toward again with the speed of a falling star.

"Shit," Urd muttered, clapping her hands together and sending more lightning and energy blasts toward her. The Titan dodged these as easily as she did before, and Urd braced herself for the next strike as the Titan closed the distance.

Suddenly, in a blur of black and purple, something darted between the two goddesses. The Titan stopped cold and turned, watching it fly off.

Urd blinked in shock as Belldandy flew off after it.

"Keiichi?!"

888

"Come on," he muttered as he pushed the throttle past the red line. "Come on, follow me."

_She's on our six, closing damn fast!_ Shinden told him. _Come on, Keiichi! Push that throttle through the nose!_

Keiichi looked up at the rearview mirror and saw the form of his girlfriend coming up fast behind them with Urd not far behind her. He pointed the Shinden out to sea and dived for the deck.

_So what's the plan?_

"Well," Keiichi said dryly. "I figured we'd lure it away from Urd so she could get away."

_... That doesn't seem to be working so well..._

As he was about to answer, his eye glanced up and found Belldandy flying right above the cockpit, almost like in his dream. He cried out and jerked the stick to the right. The Shinden's left wing swung up and batted the goddess away like a baseball.

888

Urd could barely keep up with the monster that was chasing Keiichi through the sky. Now that he'd chosen to put himself into this fight, she knew she had to end it quick. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the rings her mother had given her and slipped them on the ring fingers of either hand. If she could just catch up wi...

The thought was brought up short as she watched the Shinden roll suddenly to the right, knocking the Titan into deep left field. Seeing her chance, Urd bolted into the air as fast as she could, going for the catch.

She snagged the disoriented goddess and continued to climb into the sky like a ballistic missile. She didn't know exactly what these rings did, but she didn't want to be near Keiichi when she used them. The ocean below them meant no innocent bystanders would be harmed either.

The Titan came out of her daze and started to struggle, but Urd wrapped her arms around her and laced her fingers together to keep her from getting away.

Belldandy howled in rage, a sound Urd had never heard from her sister and only further highlighted how unlike Belldandy this thing really was. She continued to climb as it struggled, and the Norn had to fight just to hang on. She squeezed harder, lacing her fingers tighter so the rings could touch, only a few more millimeters and she would have it.

Keiichi's voice stopped her.

"Urd..."

She froze in mid-air, the sound of his voice piercing through the adrenaline. Looking at the Titan again, she saw Keiichi's smiling face staring back at her.

"Urd," it said again. "I love you. Take us down... and we can be together."

The Norn took a breath, hating the fact that she had to hear those words from a creature like this. Snarling, she squeezed as hard as she could and touched the rings together.

She gasped in pain as thunder rolled through the air around them. She felt as if she were bleeding out. No matter how hard she breathed, she couldn't get enough air. It felt as if someone tapped a tree too many times and all the sap was draining out.

Her eyes caught the Titan's as it looked around in concern. A bank of storm clouds had appeared out of nowhere around them, filling the sky with darkness and flashes of lightning. The storm grew in intensity as her strength continued to ebb.

It was in a moment of cold revelation that she realized the clouds hadn't come from the rings, but from her. The storm was her energy, pulled from her body by the rings and set loose around them, violent and out of control.

She felt the Titan renew its struggle and concentrated all her remaining strength on keeping her hands laced together. The storm around them continued to rage, the wind knocking them about like a sailboat in a hurricane.

It was getting harder to breathe, and then...

A flash of light enveloped them both.

The Titan screamed.

The sky was on fire. A halo of light surrounded them.

Urd squeezed tightly as the other goddess continued to scream in Keiichi's voice. There was less and less to hold as the seconds passed and the thing's form began to fall apart into its individual pieces of divine matter.

And then... silence.

The Norn hung in the air... alone... with only a gentle rumble of thunder to keep her company. She tried to move her arms, but couldn't. Tried to close her eyes, but couldn't. There was nothing left. She was barely breathing, all the energy she had left went into that.

And then she began to fall.

She heard the wind whistle past her ears, could see the storm clouds come into view as she spun backwards over and over as she hurtled toward the earth in an out-of-control free fall.

The goddess Urd fell from the heavens, not even able to summon the strength to shut her eyes from the air whipping past them. But she could still think, she could remember.

_Keiichi's face when she first stepped out of his TV after pretending to be part of a pornographic video..._

_Her miniature sitting on his shoulder, whispering into his ear to buy a ring for Belldandy..._

_Holding him in his old dorm room as he cried and wishing he could feel the joy he once had..._

_Keiichi carrying her paralyzed form to the tub and pretending that he was hers..._

As she spun end over end, she couldn't help but notice the water getting closer and the clouds getting further away.

_The temple roof, the stars overhead..._

Unbidden and unstoppable, tears formed in her eyes and flew into the air around her as she fell.

_Keiichi dancing with her... the feel of his hand in hers... looking in his eyes..._

She tried to shut her eyes, but the muscles wouldn't respond. Why didn't she just tell him? She wanted him to know. Before she went, she wanted him to know so badly...

The goddess made one more rotation and hit the water.

888

Keiichi's attention was pulled in a hundred different directions. The sudden storm had taken them completely by surprise, and two lightning strikes had hit the Shinden, one in the nose cone and one in the right wing, and he was having trouble controlling her.

"_Prioritize!"_ he heard Hotaru yell in his mind from his flight training. _"Aviate! Navigate! Communicate! In that order!"_

He concentrated on keeping altitude, then once that was under control he checked his position. He looked outside, his head moving from side to side as he searched the sky.

"I don't see them!" he cried. "Do you see them? Where are they?!"

_I can't see them either,_ the Shinden told him. _Are they in the water?_

The idea filled Keiichi with fear. He quickly hit the switches to turn on the FLIR and turned the aircraft to start a search pattern. It didn't take long for a yellow blob to appear on the screen.

"Urd," he breathed.

_How do you know it's her and not the other one?_

He knew. He didn't know how, but he knew.

Keiichi's heart dropped into his stomach as the yellow started to dull to green.

"She's dying," he gasped. His hand flew to the mic on his headset. "Tower! Tower! This is Nevada-One-Two-One-Papa-Papa! I need SAR at..." He realized he wasn't hearing any static or background noise and checked the radio.

_Lightning got it,_ Shinden told him.

The boy looked down at the display. The green was turning to blue.

"We have to do something," he said. "Is there... Is there a... What if we..."

There was no way. She was going too fast for him to land, get help and then get a rescue team to her. She was dying, and there was nothing he could do.

_Keiichi..._

Maybe he could fix the radio. He reached out to the panel and started turning the screws holding it in place with his thumbnail.

_Keiichi..._

"Come on," he breathed. "There's gotta be something I can do... There's gotta be..."

_Put me down in the water._

He blinked. "What?"

_You need to get to her,_ the Shinden told him calmly. _Put me down in the water near her and swim out to her. _

Keiichi shook his head and continued turning the screws. "No, there's got to be another way."

_Keiichi... It's time. This is what I was born for. _Keiichi paused as her words sunk in. _Do this for me. I got to dogfight a god. Let me die saving one's life._ _That's enough for me. _

A thousand years seemed to pass between them before he swallowed and closed his eyes. He sat back slowly and took the shuddering throttle in his hand, biting his lip as he took the stick in the other. Lining up the image from the FLIR, he pushed the stick forward.

"Shinden," he said quietly.

_I'm going home, Keiichi,_ she said. _Thank you. For everything._

He blinked tears out of his eyes. "Thank you," he replied. The automatic proximity alarm sounded as he got closer to the water.

**PULL UP... PULL UP... PULL UP... PULL UP...**

He heard the warnings, saw the ocean rushing barely a meter beneath them.

And then they hit the water. Keiichi's body was flung against the harness, his head hitting the side of the canopy. He blinked stars out of his eyes as his hands clumsily grasped at the latches.

_Keiichi, you've got to get out right now! I'm taking on water! You've gotta go!_

The cold water hitting his sneakers snapped him awake. He tugged at the latches and growled out loud when he found them jammed.

The water reached his knees.

"Come on, come on," he grunted as he pulled at the buckles. He struggled to control his panic. If he panicked now, he was dead.

The control panels started to flicker. In the flickering light, he caught a glint off a metal box, and his hand shot out to it. Opening it, he pulled out Hotaru's razor and opened it, hacking at the straps like a man taking a machete to a jungle thicket.

Finally free, he popped the canopy, pushing it open. The water was passing his belly button. Standing up, he turned and grabbed the emergency kit from behind the seat. He put the yellow life vest and pulled the cords, inflating it.

The sea was rougher than he had hoped, a remnant of the brief thunderstorm. Waves slapped the side of the airplane.

He jumped out of the airplane just as the water started to overflow the cockpit. Hitting the water, he started to dogpaddle, turning just in time to watch the nosecone of the Shinden disappear beneath the black water.

"Goodbye, Shinden," he whispered. Swallowing back grief, he turned and started swimming uncertainly.

"URD!" he yelled. "URD!"

A wave hit him, and he went under for a moment, his mouth filling with water. He surfaced and spat it out.

"URD!" he cried. He floated there for a moment, searching the water. Then he found it. Something, a shadow in the moonlight. He paddled toward it. "URD!" he screamed as he paddled, salt water splashing in his eyes.

He found the goddess floating face up, her eyes shut and her body limp. Keiichi grabbed hold of her and accidentally dunked her beneath the water.

"Shit," he gasped as he pulled her back up. He let her go and started removing his life jacket. "It's okay, Urd," he told her. "It's okay. I got you."

A wave hit them both, and they went under again, Keiichi floating to the top first and pulling her up with him. He finished pulling off his life jacket, not even caring that he wasn't a strong enough swimmer to stay afloat in the turbulent sea. He pushed the vest over her head and snapped it, letting her head float on a cushion of air.

He went under again, and this time had to struggle to break the surface, gulping mouthfuls of air as he surfaced. He grabbed hold of her with fingers numbed by the frigid water and treaded water behind her, his cheek buried in her soaked hair.

"It's okay," he sputtered. "It's okay. I got you. I got you." He reached into the small emergency kit and pulled out a dye tube, popping the top and throwing it into the water near them. "I got you," he said again as he clung to her. Nearby, the water turned a phosphorescent yellow as the dye in the tube drained into the sea.

He held onto her for dear life even as he checked her for signs of life. The pilot held his hand under her nose, but his fingers were so cold, he wouldn't have felt breath to begin with.

"I got you," he repeated tiredly, exhausted by the fight, the flight, the storm, the crash and swim. "I got you," he whispered. Another wave lifted them, water splashing over them.

He gulped for air and closed his eyes for a moment. "I got you," he whispered again. "I'll hold you as long as I can, okay? I'll hold you as long as I can."

Lightning flashed across the sky, and a gentle rain began to fall on them both.

"I got you," he whispered. He swallowed and struggled to hold on. "So tired," he muttered. "I'll hold you as long as I can. God, I'm so tired..."

The two floated in the stormy sea, the clouds passing by paying them no mind.


	26. The Old Ways Are Lost

Foreword: Sorry this one took so long. Other things going on in life made it difficult.

Disclaimer: AMG and FMP aren't mine.

_Ah! My Goddess!_

_Haloes_

_Chapter 26_

_The Old Ways are Lost_

Belldandy didn't speak. What could she say at the end of a story like that? What few thoughts that did come to mind sounded hollow and inappropriate. There was something else, though. Something that cautioned her not to speak too much, something in the way her sister was looking at her.

Sitting across the table from her, Urd smiled wanly. "It's funny," she said. "I was all set to die. I thought it would be easy. I mean... I was in love with him, right? It's easy to die to protect the one you love." She trailed off. "But as I fell... all I wanted in the world was to live, to see him again, to tell him how I felt." She looked down at the table. "I guess that makes me selfish."

"No," Belldandy told her quietly. "If you were truly selfish, you would not have gone back." The two were silent a moment before Belldandy broached a new topic. "What happened to her?" she asked. "The Titan. Was she killed?"

Urd shook her head. "No," she replied. "She can't be killed. She exists as a force of nature. To say she can be killed is like saying you can kill a tornado. You can survive one... you can't destroy them." She took a deep breath and sat back, resting her hands on the table. "And it's something Keiichi and I have lived in fear of for seven years. We know she'll reconstitute and come back eventually. It's my hope that... if it must happen that it happens a hundred years from now... after Keiichi is gone. I don't mind taking my chances..." She tapped her finger against the table, drawing Belldandy's eyes to her sister's hands...

And the silver rings that adorned the ring finger of each one.

She looked up and caught her sister's eyes, probing her with jade orbs of uncertainty. Belldandy swallowed and took a breath.

"You believe I may be her," she said simply.

"I'm ninety-nine percent sure you're my sister," Urd told her. "But one percent is still too much of a risk for me to not take precautions."

"I am your sister," Belldandy assured her.

"Prove it," Urd responded, but not in a defiant tone. Her voice was pleading, begging to have this weight off her shoulder, to have this last nagging itch scratched.

Belldandy thought for a moment before meeting her sister's eyes again. "If I was the Titan, I would kill you right now."

"We just went over that," Urd told her with a shake of her head. "These rings still work..."

"But I know you," Belldandy told her. "You're my sister, and I know you better than you even know yourself." She smiled gently. "Neesan... you may love Keiichi san... but if the choice came down between risk to him and risk to your child... I know what choice you'd make."

Urd froze, realizing she was trapped. She listened as Belldandy continued.

"Those rings nearly killed you," Belldandy told her. "You said it yourself. You don't mind risking your own life. But you won't risk your child's. If I were the Titan, this conversation would be over."

The older goddess bit her lip and looked down at her hands for a moment before pulling the ring off each finger and putting them on the table between them. "I suppose... I have no choice but to believe you're her," she said. "If you're not..."

"Neesan," Belldandy broke in with a sad smile. "Believe me. I have no surprise for you greater than the ones you've given me."

Urd nodded. "Fair enough."

Belldandy pushed the rings back toward her. "So... what happened after that?"

The elder Norn looked a little uncomfortable at the question.

"You were all right, ne?" Belldandy pressed. "Did you tell him?"

"It's um... hard to say," Urd said. "Literally..."

"Eh?"

"Well... I mean to say..." She gave up and decided to press a different tack. "Look, no skipping ahead, okay!? Just... Just take it slow..."

Belldandy blinked at her.

"So," Urd began, regaining her composure with a deep breath. "One step at a time..."

_Seven years ago..._

The light seemed to reach through his eyes and grab hold of his brain, giving the tortured organ a poke that made Keiichi want to recoil and turn away. He had a hard time believing this was the light at the end of the tunnel leading him to Heaven. He always assumed that light was warm and comforting and inviting him to something better. This was like getting poked in the eye by a three year old. He'd have to ask Urd about it...

Urd! Where was Urd?! Was she okay?! He didn't see her silhouetted in the light, so maybe she made it...

He blinked and held his hand up in front of his eyes, trying to block out the light. Jeez, Heaven sucked...

Blinking several times, his eyes focused not only on the source of the light (the sun) but a window frame around it.

"Where am I?" he whispered. "What time is it?"

"In the home of Megumi Morisato, and it is ten o'clock in the morning," a musical contralto informed him. "It is the morning of October 24th, if you want to know."

Keiichi shot up straight in the bed he hadn't even known he was lying in. "Sif!"

The blonde goddess was sitting at his bedside, a smile lighting her face. She sighed in relief. "I'm so glad you're finally awake. I feared the worst when we first found you."

He shook his head, his hands going to his head in an effort to hold back the headache that was already threatening him. "October 24th? I've been out two days?"

Sif nodded. "I arrived at the hangar just as Megumi san and Skuld chan were rousing Peorth kun," she said. "It was another couple of hours after that that we found you and Urd..."

"Where's Urd?!" he asked quickly. "Is she okay?!"

The blonde goddess tilted her head past Keiichi's shoulder, and the man turned. There, lying in a futon next to his own, Urd slept, her hands folded over her chest in an eerie manner that reminded Keiichi of an open casket.

"Urd?" he called gently, hoping to wake her.

"We've not been able to rouse her," Sif explained sadly.

He swallowed dryly at the sight of her. Although it was obvious Sif had tended to her injuries, there were still cuts and bruises to testify to her fight with the monster.

"What happened?" he asked quietly, his eyes not leaving her.

"You probably know more than I," Sif replied gently. "But from what Megumi told us, you were stalked by a Titan."

His hand went to his head. "Wait... what? Look, I'm a reasonable guy, but I've just seen some very unreasonable things. Could you break it down for me?"

Sif thought for a moment and continued. "The thing you thought was Belldandy was, in fact, a fallen goddess who took Belldandy's form in order to lure you to her nest so she could suck the life from you... and Urd stopped her."

"So what's wrong with her?" he demanded.

The blonde's face fell. "Whatever spell or charm she used sapped all but the tiniest bit of strength from her," she said. "Imagine that her life was a bonfire... all that remains now are smoldering embers."

Keiichi turned back to Urd. "But she'll be okay, right?"

"If that is the Almighty's will," Sif told him. "Are you hungry?" she asked, rising to her feet. "I can make you something."

"Yeah," he said dully. "Sure." A moment later, his head turned back to her. "Hey, wait!" he called, waiting for Sif to turn back to him before continuing. "Why are we at Megumi's?" he asked.

Sif's face turned troubled. "The temple was destroyed," she said. "When Urd first confronted the Titan."

Keiichi's face went ashen. Their home, everything they owned, all those memories...

"But Peorth kun and Skuld chan are fixing it!" Sif quickly assured him, her voice holding a touch of nervousness.

Keiichi nodded. He knew goddesses could do such things. After their battle with the Lord of Terror, Belldandy had repaired the temple with her powers, but there was something in the way Sif told him this...

"So what's the problem?" he asked.

Sif turned her head nervously, not really wanting to address this just yet. "Well... you see... Belldandy could do such a thing easily..."

"Because she's a first class goddess?" Keiichi asked.

"Because she had an underlying understanding of engineering," Sif corrected. "It was something she took an interest in. Unfortunately..."

"You and Peorth didn't," he finished dryly.

"We're fixing it as fast as we can," Sif assured him with a smile. "And with Skuld chan's help... I can reasonably promise... that you will... um... one day have a roof... and some walls..."

"All connected together?" he asked with a sigh.

"For the most part!" Sif replied.

Keiichi sighed, knowing he couldn't be upset with any of them since they had no obligation to rebuild the temple in the first place. "Thanks, Sif," he said. He laid back on the futon and closed his eyes.

"Your sister is... looking forward to speaking with you," Sif told him, and again Keiichi knew something was up.

He opened his eyes and watched the goddess walk from the room. A moment later, he sister was walking through the door, smiling as she knelt next to him.

"Hey, big brother," she said. "How you feeling?"

"I've been better," he said. He smiled nervously. "How much do you know?"

"All of it," she replied quietly. "Urd told me the basics, and Sif filled in the rest." She shook her head. "Kei chan, why didn't you tell me?"

He rubbed the back of his head as he tried to come up with a good answer for her. "I don't know," he confessed in a sigh. "In the beginning, I thought there'd be trouble if people knew and then... I don't know..."

Megumi sighed and sat back on her knees. "I wish I would have known before I said all that horrible crap about Belldandy," she said.

"What horrible crap?" he asked quizzically.

"Well... never to your face," she said. "Kei chan, I can't imagine what you've been going through the last few years. But I'm here now when you need me."

He took a breath. "Megumi, we can't let anyone else know..."

"Relax, big brother," she said with a smile. "Toshio's out of town. His troupe's doing MacBeth in Nagoya. He never has to know."

Keiichi looked up at the ceiling. "I can't believe... I didn't know it wasn't her."

"Hey, Kei chan, from what Urd said _no one_ knew it wasn't her," she said sympathetically.

He swallowed dryly as his eyes went back to the goddess lying next to him. "Yeah," he whispered. "Urd..."

Megumi stared at him for several moments, unsure of what to say or how to address his relationship with Urd.

"She knew," he said. "And no one believed her." He took an unsteady breath. "And now she's..."

"She's going to be fine," Megumi said. "You came out of it, so will she."

"Yeah," he said, forcing a smile before giving the goddess another look.

Megumi cleared her throat. "Hey, Kei chan... um... I think there's something you should probably know... about Urd..."

He wouldn't look her in the eye, his gaze rooted firmly in his lap. "I know," he whispered.

888

A knock at the front door interrupted the story, and Urd rose to her feet. "I'll get it," she said.

"Are you expecting company?" Belldandy asked.

"No, but it could be Teletha stopping by or Megumi," Urd suggested. She walked to the front door and opened it, finding a familiar blonde in a green dress standing there with a half-annoyed look on her face.

"You don't return phone calls anymore?" Sif asked pointedly in greeting before stepping forward and giving the goddess a hug.

"Hey!" Urd cried happily. "What are you doing here?!"

"Well, you cut me off in mid-message yesterday, so I decided to drop by," Sif told her as she stepped inside. "So what's new?"

"SIF!" Belldandy cried from the kitchen doorway.

"Belldandy?!" The blonde leapt forward and hugged her friend. "You're back?! When did you get out?!"

"Just yesterday," Belldandy told her.

"Oh, it's so good to see you!" Sif told her, taking Belldandy's hands in her own. The blonde suddenly looked concerned. "So... has Urd filled you in on... things?"

"She knows," Urd told her, passing them both on the way to the kitchen.

Sif took a deep breath. "I see."

"Neesan told me how much you helped them," Belldandy told her friend in a officious tone. "I am very grateful, Sif."

The other goddess squeezed her hands. "I am... sorry... that Urd and Keiichi's happiness came at the expense of your own," she whispered.

Belldandy squeezed back as tears came unbidden to her eyes. She had tried to hold them back the past 24 hours, but now, in the presence of her friend and confidante, she was starting to break.

Sif seemed to sense this and raised her gaze to find Urd. "Urd, Belldandy and I are going to go for a walk."

"Okay," Urd replied, looking at the clock on the wall. "I have an appointment this morning, so that works out good."

The blonde pulled Belldandy's hand, guiding her out the front door and down the steps. She heard the sob escape her friend's throat and squeezed her hand again.

"Come on," Sif urged gently. "We can talk over here."

The blonde led her friend to a small cluster of trees where several large rocks had been arranged as a natural sitting area. Sif guided her to one of the rocks and sat on the one directly opposite it. She watched for a few moments as Belldandy fought the rising tears before speaking.

"I once promised Urd that when you returned, I would explain all this to you," she said. "There is much to say."

"Then tell me why he gave up on me," Belldandy begged her. "Was it because the Titan came in my form? Did Keiichi somehow learn to associate her with me?"

"Oh, Belldandy," Sif sighed. "It wasn't that. He fell in love with her. That's all there is to it."

The other goddess wiped her eyes with her fingers. "But why?" she asked, almost petulantly.

Sif regarded her sadly and began her answer.

_Seven years ago..._

"Perfect," Peorth said carefully, stepping slowly away from the perfectly normal looking bedroom she had just spent an hour rebuilding. Using the powers of a goddess to remake what was destroyed wasn't necessarily difficult, not for a goddess first class, it was merely tricky when the debris was ash. First you had to reverse the thermal-chemical process that turned the object to ash to begin with. Then, you had to put all the individual molecules back together. After that, you had to rebuild the structures.

Easy. Tedious, but easy.

"Perfect," she said again.

Skuld stepped up next to her. "Wow, that's great," she said. "Is that Oneesama's room?"

"Oui," Peorth said proudly.

"Good job," Skuld said. "Except it's on the wrong side of the house."

Peorth blinked. "It is not."

"It is so," Skuld told her. She sighed. They had only managed to rebuild the kitchen and the living room so far. She remembered Oneesama doing this in a few minutes, but it was taking them days.

"It is not!" Peorth cried, determined to win this battle and avoid having to do it all over again. She held up a piece of paper and smirked. "See?! It's exactly where it was on _your_ diagram!"

Skuld examined the piece of paper before taking it and turning it right side up.

Peorth took several deep breaths. "They'll like it better over here," she declared bitterly.

"The supporting wall won't," Skuld told her. "Move it."

Peorth sighed as Skuld walked away. The goddess raised her hand and snapped her fingers, collapsing the entire bedroom into rubble again.

As the smoke cleared, she saw a figure walking toward the house from the Torii gate. She blinked, her expression immediately brightening.

"Keiichi!"

Skuld heard the name and turned. "You're awake!" she cried, rushing up to him. "Does... Does that mean that Urd is awake too?"

He shook his head as they ran to him, too overwhelmed by the sight of the half-demolished temple. "No," he said absently, walking around the residence. "God, what happened here?"

Peorth looked at the house sadly. "Megumi said Urd and the doppelganger fought here," she said. "It must have been something."

He nodded and swallowed. It was a surreal sight. Parts of the house looked perfect and pristine while others looked like it had been through a war. He shook his head. "God," he whispered.

"Don't worry!" Skuld assured him. "It's going to be good as new!"

He nodded dully. The boy remembered the hit Peorth took just before his final flight and gave her a once over. "You okay?" he asked.

She nodded and smiled wanly. "Only my pride hurts, Keiichi," she said. Her expression turned guilty. "I feel awful," she told him. "She tried to tell me, but I wouldn't listen."

He didn't say anything, too wrapped up in his own guilty thoughts to console her.

"Look, Keiichi," she whispered. "About what I told you... about Urd... I..."

"It's done," he told her simply, turning away and walking up the steps to inspect the rest of the residence.

He stepped through a gaping hole in the wall and into the living room, which looked remarkably normal under the circumstances. The boy took a long breath, and he wondered if this was all real or some kind of illusion. His eyes fell on the framed photo of the Aeronautics Club and the Shinden, and they suddenly filled with tears.

Biting his lips, he ordered himself to stop crying.

_Belldandy's gone.... Shinden's gone... Urd might not wake up..._

His family was dying, he suddenly realized. All the people he ever cared about... Hell, even Sayoko was gone now...

"Keiichi san?"

He turned and found Sif there, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you come with me?" she asked. "Leave this to Peorth kun and Skuld chan. They know what to do."

Keiichi allowed the goddess to lead him out of the house and down the path toward the stand of trees that, seven years later, would host Belldandy and Sif's heart-to-heart.

He wiped the tears out of his eyes and blinked.

"Jesus," he whispered, shaking his head in self-reproach. "Breaking down like a..."

"... man who feels he's losing everything?" Sif finished sympathetically.

The man nodded. "She... um... She wanted to tell me something," he told her. "Something she thought was really important, and when... 'Belldandy' came back... she suddenly didn't want to talk about it anymore."

Sif listened, turning her head guiltily, knowing where this was going.

"Then... Peorth told me that... that she loves me," he finished. "I don't know what to think about that."

"She should not have told you that," Sif said quietly, quite miffed at the other goddess's presumption. "It was not her secret to disclose."

"So you knew too," Keiichi concluded.

"It's... complicated," Sif told him.

"It always is," Keiichi noted with a shake of his head and a frown.

The goddess felt the need to defend her friend and faced him. "She did not seek this out," she told him straight-forwardly. "As a matter of fact, she put a great deal of effort in fighting it." She reached out and took his hands in her own. "She didn't want to hurt you... or burden you with this. She only wanted you to be happy."

He remained silent.

"Don't be angry with her," Sif begged.

"I'm not angry," he told her pointedly. "I'm just... I mean how does this happen without me knowing it?"

Sif gave him a look of embarrassed pity. "Keiichi san.... I'm sorry, but in some things... you're simply not that bright." He frowned as she continued. "I'm sure if you ask the people who know and love you both, they'll tell you that they've seen it for quite some time."

Megumi's words, Teletha's hints, Sayoko's jokes... all came rushing back to him. They could see it... They saw Urd develop feelings for him as he pined after Belldandy. They saw it, and he didn't.

"What will you do?" Sif asked.

"I don't know," he told her. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Keiichi san," she began carefully. "How do _you_ feel... about Urd?"

He didn't answer right away, fully aware that Sif meant the question only to help him and therefore deserved a truthful answer. "She's my friend," he told her. "My best friend. More than that... she's family."

"So... you don't love her," Sif concluded.

"I..." He broke off and kicked the dirt at his feet. "What am I supposed to say to that?!"

"I don't mean to make you angry," Sif told him. "I only want to help."

"Yeah, Peorth wanted to help too," Keiichi told her bitterly. "I'm starting to figure out there was a lot more going on there too." He took a breath and ran his fingers through his hair. "Am I supposed to love her?" he asked. "Is that the deal? After everything... isn't that the way it's supposed to end?"

"Keiichi san..."

"She almost died for me, Sif," he sighed.

He felt her take his arm and spin him around to face her. "Don't you dare," she warned him darkly. "Don't you dare try to feel something for her that you don't truly feel in your heart! She deserves better than that!"

Keiichi said nothing, his head awhirl with conflicting emotions.

"Keiichi san," Sif began, sympathy returning to her voice. "If you don't love Urd, then you don't love her. A woman loving a man who doesn't love her in return is not, by definition, a tragedy." She reached up and touched his cheek, pulling his gaze to her. "It's only a tragedy if the man _does_ love her... and says nothing."

He said nothing to this, gathering his thoughts as Sif pressed on.

"No one should ever feel that they _must_ feel one way or another," she said. "Decide how you feel. Then decide what you wish to do about it."

"Not that it matters right now," he muttered. At Sif's questioning look, he went on. "It's all academic if she doesn't wake up."

"She'll wake," Sif assured him with a smile... a weak, uncertain smile... "She will. Have faith."

888

"You encouraged him," Belldandy remarked sadly.

"I encouraged him to act on his true feelings and not feelings he thought he was _supposed_ to have," Sif corrected. "Although you might not agree with the outcome, you must agree that Urd deserved no less."

Belldandy stood up for a moment, walking in a circle as she gathered her thoughts.

"Did _no one_ expect me to come back?" she asked in resignation.

"I was privy to Desdemona's prediction," Sif told her. "And I had to do a lot of soul-searching, but in the end, I decided it was better to aid in their happiness one way or the other than to push for a specific outcome. If he had decided to wait for you, made that decision in his heart, I would have supported it just as fiercely."

Belldandy paused and took a breath. "How long before she woke?"

"Awhile," Sif replied.

_Seven years ago..._

Three days had passed since Sif had recommended faith, but all faith had produced so far was three days of sitting at the goddess's bedside, wondering if he should leave but not wanting to be away when she did wake up.

_If_ she woke up.

He rubbed his eyes and sat back, letting his eyes rest on her sleeping form. Sif, Megumi or somebody had folded her hands over her chest. He didn't like that. It made her look like she would in a casket. He reached over and pulled the left hand off her breasts, letting it rest next to her in a more natural way.

He hadn't spent _all_ his time here the last three days. No, he had to make his case to the agents from the Civil Aviation Authority, who were quite curious as to why he decided to crash a historical treasure into the Pacific. Fortunately, they seemed to buy his story about the freak storm forcing him down. Of course, NIT was going to want to speak with him too about their Shinden.

It still didn't look right. Reaching out, he moved a few hairs aside, off her face where he thought it might bother her.

A little better.

He took an exhausted breath. With everything happening, his pilot license suspended, his home in ashes, he still wouldn't leave this room if it was at all possible.

_Do you love her?_

_If it was Belldandy lying there, I'd be here,_ he argued.

_And what does that tell you?_

"Keiichi san?"

He turned, expecting to see Sif, but was instead surprised to see another familiar face.

"Kiyoshi san," he breathed.

The bespectacled woman carried a medium-sized box, which she placed on the floor near the doorway before approaching him. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to intrude."

"You're not intruding," he said quickly. "I'm just... sitting here."

"Oh," she said, unsure of what to say. After an awkward pause, the woman gestured to the box and stepped back toward it, as if searching for protection. "I just wanted to come by and drop these off," she told him. "Teletha called and told me what happened."

He took a step closer to the box as she opened it, pulling out several pieces of different-colored construction paper.

"The children... well... they heard Urd san wasn't feeling well, and..." She bit her lip. "When they heard she was in a fire... they... they all wanted to make her cards."

"That's great," he told her, trying to at least muster the appearance of enthusiasm.

Kiyoshi's nervousness was obvious as she thrust the box into his hands. "I hope she gets better soon," she said quickly. "The children miss her. And so do I."

She turned to leave, but Keiichi stopped her.

"Kiyoshi san."

The woman turned back to him with sad eyes.

He offered her a genuine smile. "Thank you. Would you... help me hang them up for her?"

Kiyoshi finally smiled and nodded quickly. "Of course."

Keiichi found some tape and took a handful of cards from the heiress. As he hung the cards, he read some of the crayon-scrawled messages and smiled at the drawings of Urd. It suddenly dawned on him how much things had changed. He remembered a time when Urd pretty much kept to herself and her potions, her sister and her relationship with the mortal she had contracted with the center of her life. Now she had a job, friends, a life outside the temple. He wasn't the only one hurt by her loss.

"What do the doctors say?" Kiyoshi asked as she hung a card on the wall to Urd's right.

Keiichi bit his lip. A healer from Heaven had told them that the only one who could bring Urd out of it was Urd. Until then they could do nothing.

"It's up to her now," he told her.

Kiyoshi nodded. "Then I know she'll pull through. She's very strong."

"Yeah," he agreed quietly. "Yeah, she is."

888

"Keiichi san?"

He shook himself awake with a start, his aerodynamics textbook resting on his chest on the page he had left it. "Huh?!" he asked quickly. "What?"

Sif smiled from the bedroom door, a tray laden with tea and sandwiches held in her hands. She stepped inside as she spoke. "I brought you some dinner."

"What time is it?" he asked sleepily.

"Just past midnight," she told him. He noticed for the first time that the goddess was wearing a nightgown as opposed to her favorite green dress.

"Oh," he said stupidly.

She sat next to him, placing the tray between them as Urd's sleeping form paid silent witness to their conversation. "The house turned out wonderfully, did it not?" she asked, making conversation.

He nodded, having to admit that Peorth and Skuld, with enough time, had managed to remake the temple and the residence almost perfect. Only a few misplaced items had stood evidence that anything had changed. They had moved Urd to her own room just that afternoon.

"It's been two weeks, Keiichi san," Sif told him gently. "It may be best if you tried to return to your old routine."

"There's not much to my old routine left, Sif," he told her. "I'm keeping up with school, but aside from that..." He shrugged. "I've lost two women in my life... I want the third back."

She looked down to her lap, wondering if she should broach the next subject, risk the next suggestion. She thought she knew Keiichi fairly well, but mortals could be very prickly about their faith.

"Keiichi san... have you considered prayer?"

"Prayer?" he asked with a hint of a chuckle.

"Yes, prayer," she affirmed. "Keiichi san, unlike most mortals who must take a leap of faith... you _know_ the Almighty One is there. You _know_ he listens. In my time here... I've never seen you pray."

He gave a shake of his head and looked away. "Knowing he's there doesn't help, Sif," he told her. "When you're not sure, the crappy things that happen can make sense. Knowing he's there, knowing he condones them... it just bolsters the argument that he's not listening."

"But he does listen, Keiichi san," Sif told him. "We all listen. We all hear them. That's why you must pray." She reached out and took his hand. "Every goddess hears the prayers of mortals... awake... or not."

"Are you saying that if I pray, she'll hear me?" Keiichi asked.

"A heartfelt prayer... a prayer of meaning... will reach us all," Sif told him. "If you believe it will."

"If you knew this, why didn't you tell me before now?" Keiichi asked.

"Would you have known what to say?" she replied.

"I don't know what to say now," he confessed.

"Yes, you do," she said with a smile. She rose to her feet and stepped toward the door. "Keiichi san... It doesn't matter what you say... as long as you mean it."

With that, the goddess stepped out the door and down the hall.

Keiichi turned back to Urd, her face as peaceful and unchanged as it was the moment he woke up next to her. Her face seemed to glow in the lamp-light, giving her an ethereal quality.

He stared at her for several moments before leaning over her.

"Wake up," he jabbed. "Dammit! Wake up!" he tried again.

He took a breath and bit the inside of his cheek. "Sif says I should pray," he told her. "That if I send a prayer to the Almighty, you might hear it." He looked down at her and shook his head. "But I'm not going to pray to him. I'm talking to _you_."

Urd said nothing.

"I don't..." he began before pausing. "I don't know how you must have felt the last few years," he went on. "I don't know if... maybe how you feel is what's keeping you away..." He looked away and swallowed. "And I can't even reassure you that I feel the same way... because I honestly don't know... how I feel."

He waited, wondering if Urd would say something or open her eyes or twitch in annoyance.

Nothing.

"All I know is..." He swallowed and took a breath. "All I know is I can't stand the thought of losing you again." He ran his hands through his hair and looked up at the ceiling. "I know what you _think_ you've been. You _think_ you've been a replacement for Belldandy, well you're not!"

He paused again before going on. "You're not," he told her, shaking his head. "And as bad as this sounds, I _know_ that because if it were Sif or Peorth or Lind lying here... it wouldn't hurt so much."

Keiichi blinked tears out of his eyes and took a breath. "It hurts," he told her. "And if I knew it was going to hurt this much... I would have let the Titan have me... Because there's no way it would have hurt more than this."

It took several breaths before he could make one last plea.

"Don't leave me," he whispered. "I told you once that if you _wanted _to go, that was one thing, but... I was wrong. You can't leave. You _have_ to stay. Please wake up. Please come back."

He let out a breath and turned away, resting his face in his hands as he breathed guilt-ridden and grief-struck breaths. The sounds filled the otherwise silent room

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

"Mmm..."

He blinked, slowly lowering his hands from his eyes as if he were trying to sneak up on something, his eyes wide in hope and shock. For a moment, he thought he must have imagined it, then he saw it, Urd's eyebrow twitched.

He dropped his hands and sat ramrod straight. "Urd?!" he whispered. "Urd!? Can you hear me?!"

The goddess's head tilted to the left, and she swallowed dryly. Slowly, her eyes opened and found him.

"Urd!" he breathed with a wide grin.

She smiled as her eyes adjusted and focused on him...

888

"You heard it, didn't you?" Belldandy asked her. "His prayer."

Sif smiled at the memory. "Belldandy... _every_ goddess heard it. It was that powerful. And every goddess that heard him could not help but be moved to tears by it. They all sent their warm feelings to Urd, blowing on the embers of her life until a warm flame returned."

Belldandy listened, knowing in her heart how true the statement was. Keiichi had always been capable of moving Heaven when he needed to.

"In fact, there are those who now say that Keiichi san has 'affected' the social fabric of Heaven," Sif went on. "Since that day, there have been many a granting goddess that has emulated you and Urd."

"Emulated?" Belldandy asked, but Sif didn't go into it, choosing instead to finish the story.

Sif smiled, both in happiness in amusement. "Then... looking up at him with weak and pained eyes, she said three words that they'll never... ever... forget..."

Belldandy, moved by the story despite its implications, wiped a tear away. "She told him she loved him."

The other goddess cleared her throat. "Um... well..."

_Seven years ago..._

Urd smiled up at him, and Keiichi took her hand. She swallowed again and struggled to make her voice work, finally making three soft, croaked words...

"Monkey pirate ship..."

Keiichi blinked in bewilderment as the goddess fell asleep again, totally at a loss as to what just happened.

888

"'Monkey pirate ship?'" Belldandy asked.

"'Monkey pirate ship,'" Sif quoted again.

Belldandy stared at her friend, waiting for the "Ah, I'm just kidding," or something similar.

"Monkey... pirate... ship..." she repeated slowly.

Sif nodded sheepishly. "Hai... Monkey pirate ship."

The goddess licked her lips as her mind tried to wrap around it. "Sif... I understand if you think hearing the words might distress me... and I'm sure they would... but you don't have to..."

"She said 'monkey pirate ship,'" Sif interrupted. "And it really bothers her on several different levels, so she's quite sensitive about it. She doesn't like to talk about that period of time, but it's really what brought them together..."

"Wait! Stop!" Belldandy begged. "I don't understand! She woke up! She was all right!"

"She did wake up," Sif told her. "She was _not_ all right. Her mind was damaged. It's hard to explain. My cousin explains it better." She stood up and turned away.

Belldandy sat on her rock, open-mouthed in confusion. "Sif... I think I'm more confused now than I have ever been."

"I'm sorry, Belldandy," Sif said. "But honestly, there's not much more I can tell you. I left soon after that. For the rest of this story, you're going to have to speak with Urd or Keiichi... and honestly... I would recommend Keiichi. Urd... really.... really... REALLY... hates being reminded of that time. It embarrasses her."

Belldandy rose to her feet and straightened her skirt. "I see," she said in disappointment. "Then I must seek my answers elsewhere."

"Will you speak with Keiichi?" Sif asked.

The Norn paused. "I don't know," she said. "I need to think."

Sif watched her friend disappear into the trees and sighed. Standing up, she made her way back to the temple and climbed the steps, entering the residence to the sound of low voices.

"It's difficult at this stage to know anything for certain, but as far as I can tell, he's perfectly normal," a male voice, tempered with kind professionalism was saying.

"You're certain?" she heard Urd ask, concern weighing on every syllable.

"Everything I see here tells me your baby is perfect," the man said. He continued even as Sif turned and stood in the doorway of Urd's bedroom. "He's fine."

"I've heard that before," Urd told him pointedly. She demurred a moment later. "Nyd... I'm sorry. Thank you for coming down here to check on me. I just wish I could know for sure."

The healer smiled. "We'll keep a close eye on him," he assured her. "I promise."

"Thanks, Nyd," Urd said.

The healer looked up and saw Sif there. "Now then," he said. "I have another appointment. Ladies."

"Goodbye, Nyd."

"Bye bye," Sif added. The blonde watched him go and turned back to Urd with a sigh. "I fear for my cousin sometimes," she said. "I do wish he'd find a nice young woman. I'm not the only one either. As the only male in my family, he's under constant pressure from Aunt Eir to settle down."

"He's a nice guy," Urd assured her as she got up from the futon and buttoned her shirt. "I'm sure he'll find someone."

"Perhaps a mortal woman," Sif suggested. "It seems to be the trend lately," she told her pointedly.

"All of a sudden I'm a trend?" Urd asked with a grin.

"You've been out of the loop the last few years," Sif told her. "Three goddesses in the last seven years have married into mortal families." She grinned playfully. "You're a pioneer."

"Yeah, I'm a regular role model, aren't I?" Urd shot back with a roll of her eyes. "Where's Belldandy?"

"She's thinking," Sif told her sadly. "She'll probably go speak to Keiichi next."

"I see," Urd said. She looked up and plastered on a smile. "You gonna stay for awhile? I can set up your old room."

"I think I'd like to stay," Sif agreed. "I have a feeling this will be a time for all of us to come together again."

888

Belldandy fished out a yen piece she had had since the day she was sealed and gave it to the ghost at the front booth. Stepping into the carnival, she walked down the main thoroughfare, searching for the sign that was described in Urd's story.

After only a few minutes of searching, she found it. Standing outside the fortune teller's tent, she took a deep breath and steeled herself, wondering if she really wanted to go this route, to ask about her now-uncertain future.

As if readying herself to dive into a vat of ice water, she closed her eyes and stepped inside.

"Desdemona san," she began quickly, her eyes still closed. "I've come to ask about my future."

"Sure thing, glamour girl, pull up a chair," a familiar voice replied.

Belldandy gasped as she opened her eyes. Sitting on the far side of the table with a cartoonish wizard hat perched on her head, Hild smiled unctuously.

"But I don't take checks."


	27. Suspicious Minds

Disclaimer: I don't own AMG.

Foreword: Life has been making writing difficult lately, but things should pick up now. The fic is still gunning along with more than 36,000 hits and nearly 300 reviews. That might not seem like a lot to some, but it sounds pretty good to me. Thanks, everyone!

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 27**

**Suspicious Minds**

"Hild!" Belldandy gasped, her eyes wide with shock and panic.

The arch-demoness grinned. "Ta da! Come to get your palm read?"

Belldandy started to hyperventilate with the implications of this turn of events. "Almighty in Heaven," she whispered. "YOU'RE Desdemona?!"

"Me?! Please!" Hild replied with a roll of her eyes. "I knew you'd come here, and I wanted to speak with you out of earshot of my daughter, that's all."

The Norn suddenly turned angry. "What have you done with Desdemona san?! Have you harmed her?!"

Hild grinned and put a magic eight ball toy on the table between them. "Ask the Magic Eight Ball! It holds the answers to all of your questions..."

"I have no intention of playing games with you!" Belldandy retorted. "As a goddess first class, I demand you..."

"Go on," Hild interrupted with a gesture to the Eight Ball. "Ask it. Go on."

More from a desire to move things along than an actual expectation of having her questions answered, Belldandy picked up the Eight Ball and shook it. "Where is Desdemona san?" she asked before turning it upside down.

A statement written in glowing blue script appeared at the base of the Eight Ball.

_**HELP ME!**_

The Norn's eyes went wide and found Hild again. "Release her!" she demanded. "At once!"

"Oh, it was all in good fun," Hild told her with a roll of her eyes. "But since I'm here to help you, I'll acquiesce to your wishes..." She snapped her fingers, and a glowing blue cloud shot from the base of the Eight Ball and flew out of the tent as if Hell itself were after it.

"There," Hild said, gesturing to the path the ghost just took. "Happy?"

"I am _not_ happy!" Belldandy told her. "Your behavior has been abhorrent!"

"I know," Hild sighed in amusement. "I'm bad. I tried being good, it's just _so_ boring." She saw Belldandy's blue eyes boring into her and tried again. "Oh, do relax. I came here to help you."

"To _help_ me?!" Belldandy asked in disbelief. "After everything you've taken from me, you claim to want to _help_ me!?"

"Did _I_ really take Keiichi from you?" Hild asked, tapping her lip with her finger in thought. "I don't think so. I took _you_ from _him_, but not the other way around."

"A distinction without a difference!" Belldandy argued, tears in her eyes. "Did you come here to try to hurt me even more? You can seal me forever and never do more to me than you have with a mere ten years!"

"Drama, drama, drama!" Hild admonished her. "What are you going to do? You gonna cry?" She saw the tears in Belldandy's eyes and sighed. "Jesus, goddesses are so sensitive. Now I remember why I left. Look," she said, trying to get back on track. "I feel _really_ bad about what happened. Really, I do. I feel so bad, I even started a 'Sorry I Fucked Up Your Love Life, Belldandy' Five-K Run down in the Demon Realm. But that's ancient history..."

"_It was YESTERDAY!_" Belldandy cried.

"Uh uh," Hild corrected with a finger wag. "The day _before_ yesterday..."

Belldandy stood up and turned to leave.

"You want Keiichi back?"

The Norn froze midstep, her hand on the tent-flap.

"Yes," Hild purred. "I know what you_ want_ to do... You're just too nice a person to do it."

"You mean to imply that I wish to break up Keiichi san and my sister," Belldandy concluded, turning back toward the demon queen.

"Don't you?"

"N..." Belldandy started to say, but the word died in her throat.

Hild smiled. "Unable to tell a lie... even when you don't know it's a lie."

Tears were flowing freely down Belldandy's cheeks now as the dirty secret she harbored was dragged into the light.

"Belldandy," Hild said with a gentle smile. "By an odd twist of fate, we have the opportunity to help one another."

"I want nothing you can offer!" Belldandy told her.

"I can break up Keiichi and Urd," Hild told her. "Now... try saying that again."

Belldandy said nothing, hating herself for it.

"Guilty desires are still desires, Belldandy," Hild told her in a conspiratorial purr. "Oh, I don't really think you really want to break them up. You just somehow want Keiichi back. If you could snap your fingers and go back to the day you were sealed, you would." She trailed off. "Technically you could..."

The Norn had had enough. She turned and opened the tent flap.

"Ask him!" Hild shot at her back. "Ask Keiichi about the Argadnel Anchorage." Belldandy paused, curiosity getting the better of her. "Ask him... then ask your friend, Sif, about it. And ask my daughter. Find out how many different answers you get."

Belldandy looked over her shoulder at the demon, wondering about the cryptic message she had laid at the Norn's feet.

Hild smiled. "Ask them. Then come see me. You won't be disappointed."

888

It took her almost an hour to find Sukuya Aerospace, but there were very few places it _could_ be, requiring a hangar and runway. She found the hangar very different than the description of it she heard yesterday. It looked almost new, with fresh paint and new construction mingling with old structures.

She stepped between the massive hangar doors and found an office complex lining the left side of the hangar. The goddess stepped tentatively toward it, not sure what she would say when she found him. She tried to put her conversation with Hild out of her mind. Nothing good could possibly come from her sister's mother. No, what she wanted from Keiichi was answers.

Why did he lose faith in her return?

Why did he fall in love with her sister?

She stepped through the door to the office complex and peeked around the corner into the hallway.

"Hello?" she called.

She heard the clack of a cane hitting the tiled floor, and a bearded man poked his head out from an office. His eyes went wide at the sight of her and he suddenly straightened his posture as he stepped toward her.

"Hallo," he said with a smile. "Are you looking for pilot? I am a fighter pilot."

"I _am_ looking for a pilot, actually," Belldandy replied with a smile.

The man smiled. "Da, I thought so. I am a fighter pilot, you know." He leaned on his cane, bringing himself another few inches closer to her. "I flew MiG-23s in Afghanistan. Many combat missions. I thought I would die sometimes..."

"I'm sorry," Belldandy apologized. "I should have been more specific. I'm looking for Keiichi Morisato."

The man's expression suddenly turned to disappointed disgust. "Of course," he said. "All beautiful women want to see Keiichi Morysawtoe," he grumbled. "Always Keiichi Morysawtoe... Never Mischa..."

"I'm sorry," Belldandy said sheepishly. "I would spend time with you, but it's very important that I see Keiichi san. Is he here?"

The sound of jet engines growing in volume caused Mischa to look up at the ceiling. "That is him now. Come. I show you."

He led the goddess out into the hangar and then outside the back doors facing the flightline. He stopped and pointed up at the sky with his cane. "He is in the lead plane. You see?"

Belldandy looked up and saw two jets flying high over the runway, one following the other. The chasing plane seemed dwarfed by the larger, twin-engine jet flying in front of it. With its larger build, twin engines and canards, Belldandy thought the lead plane looked somehow... meaner.

"That is Verushka," Mischa told her proudly. "Fifth-generation fighter jet. Very fast! Very tough! Has BALLS! You understand this?"

"Oh! So it's a boy jet!" Belldandy concluded with a clap of her hands.

"I do not think you understand," Mischa told her. "The other jet is Jazz-daff F-2," he said. "Helping to test our Verushka."

Verushka rolled left and banked away, the F-2 following a moment later as the two aircraft lined up for their approach.

Mischa eyed the goddess for a heavy moment. "You are friend of Morysawtoe?" he asked.

"Hai," Belldandy replied neutrally. "We've known each other a long time."

"He is very good pilot," Mischa told her. "I do not tell him this. Pilot flies better when he thinks he flies bad. Tries harder to not make mistakes. I do not worry so much about Morysawtoe. He is good."

"Hai," Belldandy said. "I'm sure he is."

888

Keiichi brought Verushka to a stop and powered down the engines and electronics before pulling off his helmet.

"See you tomorrow, Verushka," he said.

_What?! You are leaving me?! After I give you my heart and my maidenhood!?_

He sighed. "Yes, Verushka. I'll see you tomorrow."

_You are going back to _HER_, aren't you?! Your Norwegian!_

He sighed again. "Yes, Verushka. She's my wife. That's what husbands do. They go home."

_FINE! Go! S'ebis, svoloch'! You are an awful lover, anyway! You do not know how to handle my stick!_

Keiichi ignored her as he popped the canopy and started to climb from the jet's cockpit.

_ZHOPA! SVOLOCH'! DON'T EVER COME BACK! I HATE YOU!_

The Russian tirade, one he listened to at the end of every flight, faded as he moved away from the jet.

He stretched and ran his hands through his sweat-soaked hair. Piloting the Shinden had been a beating, but flying a high-performance fighter like Verushka took that to the next level. His flight-suit was soaked with sweat, and he felt like he had just gone three rounds of bare-knuckle boxing with Tamiya, and that wasn't even including the verbal abuse from Verushka.

He looked up and caught sight of Mischa standing at the hangar doors with a young woman at his side. He paused for a moment, but resumed his walk toward the hangar in an exhausted stride.

"Morysawatoe," Mischa greeted. "She flies good?"

"Yeah, she flies good," he answered absently. His eyes guiltily caught Belldandy's.

Mischa seemed to sense something between them and gestured to her. "Your... um... friend came to see you," he said.

"Yeah, thanks," Keiichi told him. He waited for Belldandy to say something, but after an uncomfortable moment, he chucked a thumb toward the locker room. "I'm going to take a shower. After that, we can talk, okay?"

"Hai."

She watched him walk off and took a breath. Why was she so hesitant? So passive? Her sister's revelation from yesterday came screaming back at her. She had lost him precisely because she refused to act.

Turning on her heel, she followed him into the locker room and made for the sound of running water. She stood outside the shower stall, unwilling to go any further and called out.

"Keiichi san?"

"GAH!" he cried on the other side of the stall door. "Belldandy?!"

"Hai," she replied, suddenly feeling sheepish. She rallied and went on. "Keiichi san, I want to ask you... Why did you give up on me?"

For several moments, only the sound of running water could be heard. This was followed by the squeaking of the knob turning, and the water turning off. A blue towel hanging over the wall of the stall disappeared, and a moment later the door opened. Keiichi, the towel wrapped around his waist and water dripping from his hair, met her steely gaze and nodded.

"Let's go for a walk," he said, stepping out of the stall and walking toward his locker. Opening it, he pulled a black t-shirt from inside and a pair of jeans.

Belldandy's eyes ran over him for a moment. Even his body was unfamiliar to her. Gone was the lanky boy. What stood before her now was a man, and it was in that moment that she realized she had her answer.

He had grown. He had matured, walked a complex journey through ten years of life that shaped the man before her.

And it was not her that had walked that path with him. It was her sister. Her sister stood by him, Her sister encouraged him after his failures and consoled him in defeat. Her sister had been there to see his triumphs and bear witness to his accomplishments. Her sister kissed him, had been the first to make love to him, the one to swear wedding vows to him.

Mortal men wanted... needed... women to walk that journey _with_ them.

And she hadn't been there.

And her sister _had._

Would it have been better if he and her sister had not acknowledged their feelings? If so, the man before her would be totally different... and she wasn't sure he would be for the better.

She turned away to give him some privacy as he dressed, blinking back the tears wrung from her by her realization.

"Okay," he said a moment later. She turned and found his back to her as he tucked his t-shirt into his jeans. On the back of the shirt was an emblem of crossed lightning bolts. Above it printed in gold were the words, "YF-40 Shinden II." Below, "Lightning strikes twice."

He turned and ran his fingers through his hair. "Okay," he said again. "Let's take that walk."

She nodded. "Hai."

Keiichi led her out of the locker room and out the hangar doors towards the parking lot. "There's a park across the street," he told her.

Once they were across the street and safely on a walking path ringing a small, grassy park, Keiichi took a breath and faced her. "Okay," he said. "What do you want to know?"

_Do you still love me?!_

She dismissed the question immediately. It would just bring agony to them both.

_What is the Argadnel Anchorage?_

Again she tossed the question out. If Hild wanted her to ask it, no good could come of it. But with her original question answered, she didn't have much else.

"You call Neesan 'Angel,'" she said suddenly on instinct. "Why?"

She was pleasantly surprised to see him smile. For a moment, the old Keiichi, the Keiichi she knew, was back. "It's... It's kind of an inside joke," he said, unable to lose the smile that took so long to appear.

"A joke?"

He nodded. "You see... there was a time when... well..." He paused. "How much has Urd told you?"

She quickly caught him up on where she stood in Urd's story, omitting parts she felt might bring undue embarrassment to Keiichi. When she was finished with her summary, he nodded.

"It was just after that," he told her. "Urd woke up, and we found out that she... She was... 'damaged.'"

Worry passed over Belldandy's face. "Damaged?" she asked. "How?"

He patted the right side of his chest and bit his lip. "Well... she has a scar... right here... that she'll carry for the rest of her life," he said. "But there was something else. The Titan... the rings... when they went off... They... um... damaged her mind."

Belldandy blinked. "She went... um... crazy?" she asked hesitantly.

"I honestly think she would have preferred that," he said.

_Seven years ago..._

Urd looked mad.

Keiichi watched her as she sat on the futon, looking supremely frustrated, and really who could blame her? She had woken up hours ago. An hour after that, the remaining goddesses and two mortals in attendance realized that there was something very very wrong with her.

Wrong enough for Sif to send for a doctor from Heaven, who was even now nodding knowingly as he stared into Urd's bitter eyes.

He held up three fingers. "Urd, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Cookbook," she answered matter-of-factly.

"Uh huh," he said. "And what is the capital of Japan?"

"I don't think she'd know that to begin with," Peorth told him.

Urd's eyes found Peorth and narrowed. "Speaker cardboard, disk drive."

Her tone was unmistakable, and Peorth hmmph'd in displeasure.

"Okay, let's try this," Keiichi said, breaking up the rather odd fight. He handed Urd a pad of paper and a pen. "Okay," he said, holding up four fingers. "How many fingers?"

Urd grinned and scribbled on the pad before handing it triumphantly to him.

Keiichi looked at the pad and bit his lip. "I ask her how many fingers I'm holding up..." He turned and showed them the pad. "And she draws a picture of a duck. Outstanding."

"What do you think, Cousin?" Sif asked the healer.

The doctor sat back and took a breath. "It would seem that Miss Urd is suffering from severe expressive aphasia, probably as an aftereffect of her fight with the Elder One."

"What does that mean?" Keiichi asked.

The doctor, a young god named Nyd, took a breath. "It happens in mortals," he said. "Usually after a stroke or some other damage to the brain. In gods it's more of a problem of the mind. It's like this: Whenever you communicate with someone, there's a six part process involved. Message, encoding, transmission, reception, decoding and comprehension. What's happening here is that one part of that process in Miss Urd's mind, encoding, is wonky. She honestly believes she's saying exactly what she means to say, but when she transmits that, it's gibberish."

"I'm not sure I'm following you," Keiichi admitted.

Nyd thought for a moment. "Okay, did you ever have a Super Space Ranger decoder ring?"

"Well, duh and/or hello," Keiichi told him with a roll of his eyes.

"Okay, now imagine if I tried to send you a message encoded with my Mighty Samurai Aardvarks ring," Nyd explained as the goddesses around them looked extremely puzzled.

"Okay! I got it now!" Keiichi said. "So basically, she can only talk in gibberish. Is there a way we can translate what she's saying?"

"And can she understand us?" Peorth asked. She knelt in front of Urd and stared into her face. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORDS THAT ARE COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH?!" she shouted.

Urd blinked, grimaced and held up a one-finger answer.

"Oh, she understands, all right," Megumi commented.

Nyd cleared his throat. "As for translating, I'm afraid that's impossible. There's no rhyme or reason to a condition like this."

"So what do we do?" Megumi asked.

"Nothing," Nyd told them seriously. "There's no cure for it. Either her mind resets itself or it doesn't."

"There's no way to reset it ourselves?" Skuld asked. She reached into her shirt. "I have a bomb," she said sadly, holding out a Skuld Bomb. "It's not the biggest bomb I have... but I bet it'd reset the crap out of Urd's brain."

Keiichi and Megumi looked at her in shock, and Urd looked on with a touch of fear. Sif knelt down and hugged Skuld. "There there," she said. "It's a very nice bomb, and I bet if Nyd thought it had a chance of working, it would do wonderfully. Right, Cousin?"

Urd, Keiichi and Megumi looked to Nyd fearfully.

"Um... No, I don't believe a bomb would work in this instance," he told Skuld neutrally.

"Okay, so what do _you_ recommend?" Keiichi asked Nyd point-blank.

Nyd took a breath. "Honestly? There are a whole host of things that could either exacerbate this or alleviate it. Every god is different, and despite the similarities, this is still very different from the aphasia you would see in a mortal."

"How so?" Peorth asked.

"In a mortal, it's strictly biological," Nyd told her. "It's damaged tissue. For a goddess, it's metaphysical and spiritual. In a mortal it's caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain. In a goddess it could be severe emotional stress or just something she ate."

"So you don't know," Megumi summed up.

"Pretty much, yeah," Nyd confirmed with a nod.

They all sighed in resignation.

"What about the... um..." Keiichi pointed at his chest, still a little embarrassed after he had accidentally walked in on Nyd's examination of Urd's chest wound, totally unaware of it until that moment.

Nyd looked embarrassed, but for a different reason. "Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done for that either. It'll heal, and it will leave a scar."

Keiichi turned his eyes toward Urd and found a very troubled look on the goddess's face. As one of only two guys in a room surrounded by powerful women, he wasn't about to say it, but he knew women were sensitive about scars, especially in places that they... er... took pride in.

"Yeah, but I don't get it," he said instead. "I've seen Urd shrug off stuff that would flatten most cities."

"The difference is in the weapon and who wields it," Nyd told him. "I doubt there's a mortal on Earth who could do anything beyond mildly annoy a goddess, but another goddess... and an Elder One, at that... that changes the game." He turned back to Urd. "Quite frankly, Miss, you're lucky to be alive."

Urd shrugged noncommitally.

Nyd scribbled a prescription on a notepad and pulled the top sheet of paper from the pad. "I'm giving you a salve that will help with irritation," he said, wadding the paper into a ball and tossing it into the air. He snapped his fingers and held his hand out where a small jar of translucent material obediently fell into it. He handed it to Urd. "As for the aphasia, the only thing I can tell you is to take your time and be patient. Something might trigger a recovery or it might just take time."

Urd nodded. "Pod lemur," she told him.

"You're welcome," Nyd said, getting the message. He stood up and turned. "Good luck to you."

His departure seemed to be the signal, and everyone else rose to their feet except for Urd. Sif offered the goddess a few words of support before filing out with the rest in order to start on the chores she had once again taken on since arriving on Earth. Keiichi was the last to head toward the door but stopped when he heard Urd's voice.

"Gorilla flapjacks..."

He turned, knowing somehow the hail was meant for him. Urd looked him over before speaking again.

"Spot howler lamp shade?" she asked tentatively.

He shook his head with a sigh. "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're trying to say."

Urd took a step forward and wrapped her arms around him. For a moment, Keiichi thought he was being propositioned, but the way Urd's hands moved up and down his back was in no way romantic. It dawned on him what she was doing.

"I'm fine," he told her. "I just got a bump on the head and a little waterlogged. I'm okay."

He watched her breathe a sigh of relief and turn again. "Cookie monster laptop nail polish remover," she muttered with a shake of her head. She turned back to him. "Soda pop..."

"Urd," he interrupted, shaking his head ruefully. "I know in your head you're _hearing_ what you think you're saying... but I don't understand. I'm sorry."

She bit her lip in frustration and put her hands on his shoulders, leaning forward and speaking slowly.

"Carburetor munchkin..."

"That doesn't help," he said quietly. "I'm sorry. I wish... I wish I could understand, but I don't..."

She growled in frustration and turned away.

He looked at her, feeling helpless. "Is there anything I can get you?" he asked.

The goddess didn't turn to him. "Train tracks."

_Dumbass!_ he chastised himself. _Why did you ask her a question if you can't understand the answer?_

Urd looked at him and seemed to figure out the problem. She made a motion with her hand as if working a remote control.

"TV!" he cried triumphantly. "Got it! Yeah! I'll move it into your room while you... um... recover..."

He stood there stupidly for several moments. There were things he wanted to say, but didn't know how, and he didn't want to burden her with half a conversation where she would have to listen but not respond.

"Sneaker puff adder?" she asked.

"Hmm?"

She sighed and flopped back down onto the futon. "Letter cabinet," she said in defeat.

"Okay," he said quickly, feeling just as defeated. "I'll be back."

He walked out of the room feeling like a jerk. It was amazing how limited you were when you couldn't speak.

Walking down the hall, he stopped short as Sif appeared and nodded toward the living room.

"Keiichi san, there's a couple of men here to see you," she said worriedly.

He nodded, having expected this visit for the last couple of weeks. "Okay, I'll talk to 'em."

888

Megumi looked up, just a little surprised, as she heard footsteps approach from down the hall and saw Urd walking her way. The goddess had changed into a dark purple turtleneck and a black leather skirt that showed off her legs while completely hiding her chest.

She hadn't expected the goddess to venture out of her room yet, Nyd saying that she needed more rest yet, but apparently Urd had decided she had slept enough. Megumi offered her a smile.

"Hey," she said. "You sure you should be up?"

Urd shrugged but didn't try to speak, having had quite enough of looking like an idiot today.

Megumi rooted through the refrigerator and emerged with two beers. Handing one to Urd, she popped the top on the other and leaned against the counter.

"We were really worried about you," she said. "Especially Kei chan. He didn't leave your bedside except maybe once or twice the entire time you were out."

Urd looked down at her beverage and took a sip. Megumi wasn't sure if the knowledge warmed the Norn's heart or not. She saw the goddess crane her neck to look through the kitchen door and into the living room where Keiichi was listening to two men speak.

The Norn nodded in their direction. "Diaper title speaker?"

Megumi turned and saw the conversation, catching the goddess's meaning. "Yeah," she said with a little concern. "The government had their turn, now it's the school's."

At Urd's perplexed blink, Megumi remembered the goddess wasn't exactly caught up on current events. She smiled. "Yeah, when you blacked out and fell in the water, Kei chan couldn't radio for help. So he crashed the Shinden into the sea so he could swim out to you."

Urd's face went ashen. She swallowed dryly and bit her lip. "Receipt movie train barbecue?" she asked in a haunted whisper.

"I mean how romantic is that?" Megumi asked, giving her a nudge with her elbow. "The thing was a national treasure, you know?" She saw the grief-stricken expression on Urd's face and arched an eyebrow. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Yeah, Kei chan's in a little trouble, but I don't think they're going to throw him in jail or anything."

"Megumi san," she heard from her left. Turning, she saw Sif with a similarly saddened expression on her face. "It's rather hard to explain, and I know you're not aware of everything that transpired in regards to the goddesses who stayed here, but... well... The Shinden was not a 'thing.'"

Megumi blinked. "What? You mean like... it was alive?"

Urd took another slug from her beer as Sif did the talking.

"Not alive as you know it, but it did have a spirit," Sif told her. "A spirit Keiichi san, by benefit of his relationship with Belldandy, was able to communicate with." Her voice turned sad. "Keiichi san did not lose a piece of equipment. He lost a friend."

Megumi blinked and looked at Urd again, the guilty and grieving look on her face suddenly making sense. Keiichi had to choose between them, and he chose Urd. She suddenly felt like an ass.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't know."

Sif smiled. "It's all right. There are many things, I'm sure, that happened right in your presence without your knowledge. I'm sure Keiichi san didn't mean for it to turn out that way. He was just concerned."

While Sif spoke to Megumi, Urd stepped to the doorway, leaning against the wall just outside so she could listen in. Eavesdropping wasn't a very goddess-like thing to do, but neither was lying and Urd had long settled whatever qualms she had with that.

888

Keiichi stood there, arms folded over his chest, his jaw set as the two men sitting comfortably before him, having spent the last thirty minutes going over "last minute details," pronounced sentence over him. He understood why. He had been expecting it. He wasn't sorry in the least.

They must have figured that out, which is why they didn't seem the least bit sympathetic.

"After going over the facts and the government report, the NIT board of inquiry is ready to offer the following report," the older, balder man in the cheap Korean suit told him formally. "The board finds that Keiichi Morisato, head of the Nekomi Institute of Technology Aeronautics Club, has acted with... questionable judgement... and is not fit to lead an NIT collegiate-level organization."

Keiichi glared as he let the pronouncement soak in.

"Now, no charges, civil or criminal, will be filed at this time, but your credits for this semester are forfeit," cheap suit finished. "Do you have any questions?"

The pilot glared at them. "No," he said simply. "Is that it?"

"It is."

"Good," Keiichi told them. "Door's that way."

The two men bristled at the rudeness, but said nothing as they stood up and filed toward the door. Keiichi took a breath and sat down, waiting until they were gone before putting his face in his hands and taking a breath.

In a way, he felt he got off lucky. There were, after all, only two Shindens in the entire world, and he had smashed one into the Pacific... after taking off without a flight plan... after the tower ordered him not to... in what was being called a freakish lightning storm. Ostensibly, it was irresponsible. It was like taking one of Shogun Tokugawa's hand-written letters and wiping his ass with it. He couldn't even tell them why he did it without sounding like a drugged up lunatic.

He took another breath and tried to think of what he would do next. He was supposed to graduate this year. So much for that.

Keiichi looked up as he felt a hand rest on his shoulder and squeeze gently. Urd looked down from over his shoulder with sympathetic eyes.

"Hey," he said quietly, looking back down again. He shook his head and started to stand. "Oh, right. The TV. I'm sorry, I... kinda got distracted..."

She pushed him gently back down and circled around to face him. Kneeling in front of him, she placed her hands on his shoulders again and pulled him into a hug.

"Mahogany chicken," she said quietly.

He blinked as she pulled away. "Huh?" he asked.

She shut her eyes in frustration and held out her hand, her thumb and pinky spread in imitation of an airplane, and waved it around like it was making loop-de-loops.

"Oh," he said softly. He thought for a moment and spoke again, taking his best guess. "It's okay. It was what she wanted. She..." He took another breath, the words failing to appear now that he was finally talking about it after weeks of ducking the issue. "I think... it was how she wanted it..."

Urd hugged him again. When they parted this time she gave him another string of gibberish that seemed to end with a question mark. At his questioning look, she made as if she were straightening a tie.

"Oh, that stuff," he said with a forced smile. "That's not so bad. I'll bounce back. Another year in school isn't that big a deal, I guess."

He saw the look in her eyes and shook his head. "Don't feel bad about this," he told her. "You saved my life." He smiled. "This is the least I could do in return. Let's just concentrate on getting you back... um... to the way you were before... okay?"

She blinked tears out of her eyes and nodded.

888

"Well, isn't this nice?" Sif asked as she placed the large bowl of udon on the table and sat down. "We haven't all had dinner together like this since... well... ever!"

No one sitting around the table said anything for a moment, prompting Sif to continue.

"And now that Urd is back with us, we can all talk about happier things!"

She realized her faux pas a moment later as Skuld, Megumi, Peorth and Keiichi all winced.

The goddess cleared her throat. "Um... well... Megumi san! Someone _finally_ got around to telling me that you're getting married!"

"Yeah!" Megumi replied, grabbing the ball and running with it. "His name's Toshio, and he's a stage actor."

"How's the planning going for the wedding?" Peorth asked conversationally.

"You know, it's not," Megumi replied. "At their surprised expressions, she smiled. "I don't mean that. I mean we talked it over and took a hard look at our finances and decided we had a choice. We could either have a big wedding and no honeymoon or a small wedding and a kick-ass honeymoon. So I think we're going to just have a small ceremony... maybe here?" she hinted, glancing in Keiichi's direction. "And then we're jetting off to Paris!"

"Oh, Paris is beautiful!" Peorth sighed. She blinked. "At least it was three hundred years ago. I haven't seen it in awhile."

Keiichi listened to the chatter with limited interest, his eyes inexorably going back to Urd, who sat across from him. The goddess stared down at her bowl, unable to be a part of the conversation so having zero interest in listening to it.

It was hard for him to imagine how isolated the goddess must feel, when even the most mundane things had to be communicated through pantomime. He wondered what other unseen consequences there would be to her condition. Would she be able to type in a URL on the computer? Dial a number on a phone? Call for help?

It would be interesting to say the least.

He hoped she snapped out of it soon.

888

Keiichi's hair was still wet as he stepped out of his room the next morning, ready to figure out what the hell he was going to do now. With his credits forfeited, there really was no point in going to class, so really why bother. Besides, he didn't want to leave Urd alone.

Not that she was really alone. She was surrounded by goddesses who were all too eager to help in their own ways.

Literally... too eager sometimes.

"TEDDY BEAR!"

The seeming-non sequitur screamed from down the hall propelled him forward. Stopping outside of Skuld's room, he threw the door opened and froze at the sight that met him.

Urd was strapped down to a stainless steel table while some kind of laser cannon with an assortment of drills and buzzsaws seemingly strapped on "just 'cause" hovered over her, a crosshair of light illuminating her forehead. Her terrified eyes found him, and she screamed again.

"JESUS!" he cried.

"What?!"

He turned to the right and found Skuld sitting at a laptop computer, adjusting a set of welder's goggles on her head.

"WHAT THE HELL, SKULD?!" he shouted.

"I know what you're going to say," Skuld told him calmly, holding her hands out as if to ward off criticism. "But hear me out. I was racking my brain last night for a solution to Urd's condition, and then it hit me... lasers and chainsaws..."

"TURN THAT DAMN THING OFF!" he demanded, pointing at the machine that seemed to come from the mind of John Carpenter.

Skuld blinked at him in puzzlement. "I don't think I'm explaining this right..."

"Just turn it off!" he ordered again.

The girl-goddess sighed and tapped a key on the laptop. The machine whirred to a halt. Keiichi went to Urd and undid the snaps on her manacles. The enraged Norn leapt off the table and started for Skuld, but Keiichi grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Woah! Hold on!" he cried.

"I'm just trying to help!" Skuld cried. "A good dose of positrons to the pre-frontal lobe could reverse the tachyons in her speech center and reset them to a point before her brain went wonky!"

"And Urd agreed to this?" Keiichi asked.

"Well... it's hard to tell, you know... I just assumed 'toybox monkey scrotum,' meant 'sure, go for it!'"

He sighed. "Skuld..."

The boy broke off as he heard a loud "CLANG!" and turned to find Urd smashing the laser with a wrench. Surprisingly, Skuld didn't try to stop her.

She must have seen the question in his eyes and shrugged. "It'll take me all of ten minutes to build another one."

"How did you wrestle her down to do this anyway?" he asked.

Skuld put her finger to her lip in thought. "You know... I _did_ get further along in the plan than I really expected to..."

"So why didn't she just blast you with a depth charge?" Keiichi asked.

"Because she can't."

They turned and found Peorth leaning against the doorframe, unnoticed amidst Urd's rampage.

"What do you mean?" Keiichi asked her.

"A lot of minor spells can be done without words, but some, like attacks, still require some form of communication with the Heavenly network to function."

"Phhbbt!" Urd commented with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh?" Peorth asked with a grin. She took a step toward Keiichi. "Let's experiment, shall we?" She suddenly wrapped her arms around the mortal and hung on him like tinsel on a Christmas tree.

Fire leapt to Urd's eyes, and she reached to the ceiling.

"BADGER NUT SACK!"

Nothing.

"See?" Peorth said, unwrapping herself from Keiichi. "It's going to be like that for just about every moderate to high-level spell." She saw Urd's utterly incensed look and couldn't resist just pushing a little more. "You'll be helpless against a demon or..."

She watched Urd storm out of the room and heard Keiichi sigh.

"Will you get off her case?" he hissed. "She's got enough going on right now, all right?"

"I was just trying to make a point," Peorth sniffed.

They turned as Urd returned a moment later, Sif in tow. The Norn pointed to Peorth and made a theatric motion with her hands, imitating an explosion and a "FWOOSH!" noise.

Sif blinked. "'FWOOSH?'"

Urd nodded.

The blonde turned to Peorth and smiled. "Peorth kun, Urd seems to want me to use my powers to blow you up."

"Oui," Peorth sighed. "That'll probably be a frequent thing..."

"But I can't do that," Sif told Urd. "It's not very nice, for one thing."

Urd growled and made the gesture again. "FWOOSH!"

"But why should I do that?!" Sif asked, her hands over her heart in dread.

Keiichi rolled his eyes. "Peorth made a pass at me."

"Oh!" Sif said suddenly. "Well, that's different..." She raised her arms in Peorth's direction.

"QUOI?!"

"AERIS DISCHORD!"

The explosion drove Peorth through the floorboards, and Urd looked down at her, giving her a raspberry before skipping out of the room. Sif looked down at her with regret-filled eyes, her hands clasped before her.

"Remember, Peorth kun," she began by way of explanation. "We all have to help Urd while she heals!" The goddess then beat a hasty retreat, Skuld right on her heels.

Keiichi stayed behind and watched Peorth, her skin and outfit blackened with soot, climb from the hole in the floor.

"Sorry, Peorth," he said with a shrug. "You kinda asked for that one."

Peorth rose to her feet and glared. "I'm just trying to help!"

"Yeah, I've been thinking about that, actually," he said. "Something Sif told me when we talked about how Urd felt about me. She said... that in things like that I wasn't very bright."

The rose goddess sighed theatrically. "Oui, Keiichi. It's unfortunate but true."

"So after that, I did a lot of thinking, looking for the signs that I missed," Keiichi told her, his voice even. "You know what I came up with? That I might be clueless, but she hid it very well anyway."

"Well, I'm sure..."

"But you didn't," he interrupted.

"Quoi?"

His eyes held hers, neither willing to back down. "As a matter of fact, you were so blatant, I'm amazed that I didn't pick up on it."

Peorth took a breath. "Keiichi, this isn't about _my_ feelings..."

"Except that it is," he broke in again. "Because after all that, all the effort you put in trying to show me your feelings for me... the moment the Titan showed up... you gave up."

The goddess said nothing. She turned away and shrugged. "Belldandy was back. I didn't stand a chance," she said quickly.

"Didn't seem all that broken up about it," Keiichi commented.

"I'm good at hiding the pain in my heart," Peorth bit out.

"And in the time since then, it's been like nothing ever happened," Keiichi said. "You _knew_ Urd was in love with me... and the whole time you were trying to seduce me... Why?"

Peorth tapped her foot on the floor and turned to him. "I was trying to help you!" she hissed. "Because the two of you were getting so close, I _knew_ it was only a matter of time before you two got drunk and grabby, and then it would be too late. Because when Belldandy came back she'd know. She'd _smell_ it on you both! You spend all your time worrying about _your_ relationship with Belldandy, you never thought about Urd's! You know what it's like to be betrayed by your sister?! It would destroy them both!"

"And your answer was to try to sleep with me?" Keiichi asked.

She sighed in exasperation. "It's one thing for her to hate me," Peorth told him. "And she would forgive you!"

"I get it," Keiichi said with a smile. "That's why Urd's been so pissy to you. She figured it out."

Peorth looked away.

"You really would have done it, huh?" Keiichi asked her. "You would have been perfectly fine if I had fallen in love with you, and when Belldandy came back..." He shook his head in disbelief. "You would have dumped me."

"So you could be with Belldandy!" Peorth shot back.

"But I would have been in love with _you_!" he fired at her. "Did you think about that?! What about what _I_ wanted?! If I had made a commitment to you, I would have been committed to _you_!" He turned and slammed his hand against the doorframe in anger. "What did Urd say when she found out?"

"She tried to kick me out," Peorth told him sullenly and more than a little chastened. "I told her I'd leave when she told you how she felt and you asked me to go."

He turned back to her. "Well I know how she feels now," he bit out. He started through the door. "And I'm asking you to go."

She watched him disappear through the door and took a deep breath.

"Merde."

888

He turned the corner and found Urd putting on her jacket and heading toward the front door.

"Hey!" he called out, worry gripping him. "Where are you going?"

"Pillow fight," she said, opening the door.

"You think that's a good idea?" he asked. "I mean you..."

She glared at him, daring him to continue.

He went silent, watching as she stepped out the door and shut it behind her. Keiichi sighed.

"Perhaps she just wants to be alone," Sif suggested, coming up beside him.

Keiichi shook his head and sighed.


	28. Talk to Me

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine and neither is FMP.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 28**

**Talk to Me**

She watched the pair walk through the park from her perch atop the control tower across the street. It was obvious the little goddess hadn't asked the question yet. Keiichi looked far too calm and comfortable for that. No, Belldandy must be taking her sweet-ass time...

Hild bit the inside of her cheek and ran the numbers in her head again. It was always a gamble, manipulating people at such an intimate level, but what else was left? Surely at the very least she could not be _faulted_ for releasing Belldandy, and it should, in fact, earn her a little credit.

And surely she couldn't be faulted for _her_ actions at Argadnel. After all, she was what she was, and anyone who honestly thought she would act differently under those circumstance just hadn't been paying attention.

No, this was on Keiichi and, to a lesser extent, Sif, though Hild could care less what the little viola-playing tart did. This would turn on Urd's feelings, whether the righteousness of her goddess side would nudge out the quiet vindication of the demonic.

Manipulation was so much easier when dealing with simple black and white. Shades of grey skewed the numbers terribly.

"You play a high-stakes game, Milady."

Hild didn't bother turning as the demon appeared on her left, her traditional cowl missing from a regal face punctuated with ruby-red eyes. Violet hair hung in two ponytails nearly down to her feet, flowing around the katana strapped to her back like the Tigris and Euphrates around Baghdad.

"No point in living if you can't feel alive, Ameko," Hild replied with a smile. "I don't play penny-poker."

Ameko, the head of Hild's external intelligence service, arched an eyebrow and said nothing. "I see you let your jewelry walk off," she noted.

"I had a use for her," Hild explained casually. While she owed Ameko nothing in way of explanation for anything, Hild often cut her more slack than most other demons. The two shared a bond as they shared a similar history. Ameko was one of the few demons left who had left Heaven willingly and sided with Hild against the Almighty, a club that had gotten much smaller over the centuries. Most demons had been born into demonhood. They knew nothing else. But Hild admired the strength it took to defect, to _choose_ to be a demon.

That took balls of solid brass.

"You risk a great deal," Ameko warned her again. "Why?"

"Because I did nothing wrong," Hild told her icily. "I am entitled. And Belldandy will vindicate me..."

"At the cost of your daughter's marriage?" Ameko asked.

Hild smiled again. "Oh, I seriously doubt that," she said. "When you love someone, Ameko, you're willing to do anything for them. Argadnel proved it. Urd knows that. If, by some turn of fate, Belldandy tries to use the information I give her to break them up, she will merely find herself even more alienated than she already is. Love endures."

Ameko looked across the street at the pair. "I do believe, Milady, that you hold more confidence in their marriage than Keiichi does."

"How did he strike you?" Hild asked.

"As a shining example of mortality," she announced regally. "Able to capriciously pick and choose light and dark based on the whims of the moment. I imagine his conscience still aches, but I doubt he loses sleep over it."

Hild was silent, and Ameko regarded her out of the corner of her eye. Feeling compelled to add more on behalf of her friend, she spoke again.

"He loves your daughter a great deal."

"Bet your ass," Hild agreed with a grin.

_Seven years ago..._

"Now where are you going?!" Sif asked as Keiichi pulled on his leather jacket.

"Out," he replied bitterly as he walked toward the door Urd had walked through only five minutes before. "It seems to be the thing to do around here."

"Keiichi san, please," Sif begged. "We're all feeling frustrated, but being angry will not help Urd."

He stopped at the door and took a break, the goddess's words taking all the fight out of him. "I don't know how to help her, Sif," he said. "I mean... I can't imagine what she's going through right now."

"But likewise she cannot understand what you're going through," Sif told him. "And in that there is a bond you share." She paused and shook her head. "Keiichi san... I am sorry for your loss. And I'm sorry that the things you love seem to keep being... taken away from you... But now is the time to cling to your loved ones, not push them away."

"Loved ones," he sighed, leaning against the doorframe. "She doesn't know."

Sif blinked. "Know what?"

Keiichi looked at her sadly. "That Peorth dropped the dime on her. Urd thinks she's keeping a secret, and God knows what she'll do when she finds out it's old news."

The blonde smiled nervously. "I imagine Peorth kun will want to find her entertainment elsewhere..."

"She's leaving," Keiichi told her in no uncertain terms. "She's been trying to manipulate me all this time... for my 'own good,' of course."

"That was... nice of her?" Sif asked.

He tapped the doorframe with his fingers as the hints of a new thought struck him. The mortal didn't air it, not wanting to rock a boat that was already in stormy seas. Instead, he looked up at the blonde and bit his lip.

"Sif... thank you... for everything," he told her quietly. "I might not seem very appreciative, but you're one of the few bright points in this house right now."

The goddess smiled, instantly reminding Keiichi of Belldandy. "Keiichi san," she said. "I came here as Belldandy's friend, but quickly became yours and Urd's. No matter what happens, if you need me, I'll be there for you."

Keiichi slid the door open and smiled. "Thanks, Sif."

He turned and nearly jumped out of his skin as a familiar man in a white coat knocked the head of his cane against Keiichi's forehead.

"Moreesawtoe," Mischa growled. "You no come to work anymore? You think, 'Bah! Akilina will merely spring from forehead like Athena from Zeus's?!"

"Actually," Sif said, holding a finger up. "It didn't happen that way..."

"MISCHA?!" Keiichi cried.

The Russian engineer stepped inside, not bothering to remove his shoes. "You shut up," he told Keiichi quickly, his eyes locked on Sif. "I talk to you soon." He smiled at the goddess. "I have not met you, and for that I will punish Moreesawtoe even worse."

Sif smiled. "How do you do, good sir? My name is Sif."

"I am Mischa Anatoly Novikov," Mischa told her, stiffening to attention. "I am fighter pilot," he added, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles.

The goddess giggled at the attention.

"Oh, you haven't flown a fighter since 1989!" Keiichi reminded him.

Mischa ignored the man, but grabbed hold of the message. "True," he said sadly. "I was shot down," he told Sif dramatically. "I had to walk two hundred kilometers across mountainous desert, my knees broken from the ejection, and the mujahadeen hounds haunting my every aching step..."

"Oh, my!" Sif cried.

"You were on the base," Keiichi reminded him. "The bathroom stall you were sitting in was hit by a mortar. You weren't shot down..."

"It was only my advanced survival training as fighter pilot that saved my life," Mischa went on, thoroughly ignoring his student.

"Would you like some tea, Novikov san?" Sif chirped.

"Please," he said, stepping closer to her. "Call me Mischa."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Keiichi asked.

The MiG driver turned and seemed to notice him for the first time. "Oh... Right! You! Moreesawtoe! You no show up for work! You no call! I am not pleased by this! So I come to your home to call you an asshole."

Keiichi rubbed his temples. "Yeah, about that... Look, you're gonna get a call from NIT explaining it, but all my work for this semester is forfeited, so I'm not part of the program anymore."

"I got call yesterday!" Mischa told him. "They tell me, 'Keiichi Moreesawtoe is no good! Keiichi Moreesawtoe is an asshole!' But I tell them NYET! I tell them Keiichi Moreesawtoe is apprentice to THE Mischa... Anatoly... NOVIKOV! Lenin had Stalin, The Beatles had The Monkeys, I have you."

Keiichi took a breath. "Look... Mischa... I'm moved that you'd compare me to... um... The Monkeys... but... well... they're kinda right," he said. Sif looked on sadly as Keiichi made a false confession he had and would make again often. "I crashed the Shinden. My license is suspended. They don't want me around airplanes right now."

Mischa knocked him in the head with his cane. "Bohzemoi!" he cried. "You listen to the little ants on the ground you fly over? You think they understand?" He grabbed Keiichi by the front of his shirt and pulled him close enough for Keiichi to smell his breath. "Flying is _miracle_, Moreesawtoe," he whispered. "Three hundred years ago you would be burned as a witch for what you do. You _fly_. That is _miracle!_ And after time after time of performing this miracle, one time it does not go right and people say you are _bad_? Do _they_ perform miracle? They see you do it, and they think miracle is easy. But it is miracle! Let ants worry about crawling on the ground. You have miracles to perform."

He released the stunned college student and straightened his lab coat. "Now then... you will come and work for me, you are apprentice. When time comes, I do paperwork and make it official for school." He started for the door. "Now, come. Akilina waits for us."

The mortal and the goddess watched him leave in stunned silence.

"He seems nice!" Sif commented.

Keiichi sighed, but smiled. "Yeah, I guess so." He turned back to Sif. "If Urd calls or..."

"I will let you know," Sif assured him. "Now, go and have fun."

888

It took half an hour for Urd to pantomime the gist of her condition to Teletha, who still didn't quite grasp it. However, even if the CEO didn't understand, she was willing to play along. Urd had always been her most... unique... model, and if she couldn't talk, then she couldn't talk. She didn't pay her for her voice, after all.

"So," Teletha said, returning to her seat behind her desk. "Does this mean you're going to stay?"

The model looked very uncomfortable. After a moment of thought, she pulled her blouse down and showed Teletha the top of her scar.

"Oh, honey!" the businesswoman sighed. "I'm so sorry! What happened?!"

Urd gave her a look.

"Right, of course, you can't talk. Sorry," Teletha said. "But don't worry about that, Urd. We can airbrush that out!"

Urd didn't look convinced.

"Just think about it, okay?" Teletha begged.

The goddess thought for a moment and then nodded.

"Good!" Teletha blinked. "But... if you didn't come here to get your job back, then why did you?"

Urd stood up and made a wide circle around her stomach.

Teletha's face scrunched up in thought for a moment before the light went off in her eyes. "Oh! Sayoko san! Of course! What about her?"

The goddess tried to find a way to explain her question, finally giving up and just giving Teletha an angry look.

"She's not here today. Would you like her phone number?" Teletha asked.

Urd's eyes could melt lead...

"Oh! Sorry! Sorry! How about her address?"

The goddess clapped and pointed at her as if Teletha had just scored a point in charades. The businesswoman quickly jotted her employee's new address down on a stickypad and handed the paper to her.

"Is there anything else I can do to help?" she asked. Urd smiled and patted her shoulder in thanks. "Okay... well... think about what I said. We'll work around it, really we will."

Urd leaned over and gave her a tight hug. The mortal woman could feel the anguish in the embrace and hugged back with all the strength in her lithe frame.

"If you need _anything_, come to me, okay?" she said. She felt Urd nod into her shoulder and then pull away. Teletha watched the goddess walk out the door before retaking her seat and going back to work.

888

If it was one thing Sayoko Mishima didn't expect to see when she opened the door to her fifth-floor walk-up, it was the face of her former roommate. She was so startled, that she tried to open the door with the chain lock still in place, and only after a quick shutting and reopening of the door did she smile and offer the Norn a hug.

"What are you doing here?!" Sayoko asked as she stood aside to let Urd enter. "I haven't heard from you in weeks!"

Urd took a deep breath and began the same pantomime routine she had used to explain her situation to Teletha. It was only after that and a few demonstrations of her speech did Sayoko get the picture. She put some tea on and bade the goddess to sit down.

Sayoko watched her as the Norn sat and studied the one-room apartment. The walls were yellow, but from aging wallpaper rather than anyone's actual fondness for the color. A stove that was probably there since the apartment was built in the sixties sat in the corner next to a tiny counter. The only window opened out to a brick wall, a pink light from the juice bar that sat next to the building filtered in, but was only barely noticeable.

"I know, it's not exactly the Ritz," Sayoko told her self-consciously. "But the price was right."

She placed the teacup in front of Urd and watched her sip. The goddess smiled and patted her stomach before pointing to Sayoko's own.

"Oh, the baby's fine," Sayoko told her, subconsciously rubbing her baby bulge. "I had a couple of appointments today, so I just took the day off. I had the sick leave, so, you know... why not?"

Urd finished her tea and chucked a thumb at the door.

"You're leaving already?" Sayoko asked.

The goddess pointed to her and then back at herself. She waved her hands at the woman's meager belongings, as if to say, "Pack your shit up! Let's get out of here!" The Norn stood up to help her pack.

"Oh, Urd, I'm not going. I just got moved in," Sayoko told her.

Urd waved her hand around the room and made a sheepishly disgusted face.

"Well, yeah, it's not great... okay, it's awful," the former heiress admitted. "But it's mine. My name's on the lease, and my name is on all the rent checks. And I kinda like that."

She watched, mystified as Urd's face fell.

"What's wrong?" Sayoko asked her as Urd fell back into her seat and held the cup out to the woman for a refill.

The pregnant woman refilled the Norn's teacup and sat down next to her. "Now," she said. "What's wrong?"

Urd wouldn't look at her, just continued to stare down at the table.

"Things that bad with Belldandy back?" Sayoko asked.

The goddess finally turned to her and blinked. Sayoko hadn't heard... She drew her finger across her neck, and Sayoko's eyes went wide.

"Belldandy's _dead_?!" she whispered. Urd shook her head frantically. "She's not dead? She's _kind of_ dead?"

Urd took a frustrated breath. She held up three fingers.

"Three words," Sayoko answered. "First word... three syllables..." She watched the Norn imitate ringing a bell. "Bell... Belldandy...Belldandy! Okay... second word... rhymes with... dot? Cot? Not? NOT! Okay... Third word... Belldandy again! Belldandy not Belldandy!" Sayoko blinked. "That doesn't make any sense..."

Urd took another deep breath and tried to find her calm.

"Wait, okay," Sayoko said. "You're saying the Belldandy who came back wasn't the real Belldandy!"

The Norn clapped her hands in glee.

"So what was she?"

Urd sighed again and waved her hands as if to say, "forget it."

"So... is this new Belldandy dead?"

The goddess shrugged and winced in uncertainty.

"But she _is_ gone?" The goddess nodded, and Sayoko continued. "So... what's the problem?"

Urd opened her mouth to answer and froze. She bit her lip and tapped the top of the table with her finger.

"Is it you and Keiichi?" Sayoko asked. Urd refused to answer, and Sayoko took this as affirmation. "What's the problem?" she asked. "Did he do something? Did _you_ do something? Oh! Did you tell him how you feel?! Is that it?! You told him, and now things are weird?!"

Urd glared at her. "RUTABAGA MUPPET HANDBAG ZOMBIE PRINTER DOUCHEBAG!" she cried in exasperation.

"Okay, okay!" Sayoko cried defensively. "Jeez, sorry!"

The goddess rested her head on the table and quietly banged her fist against it.

"It must be hard," Sayoko said. "Having so much to say and no way to say it."

Urd sighed loudly in agreement.

Sayoko was about to say more when she heard the sniffle. She had to crane her neck to get a view of Urd's eyes, but when she did she saw the tears pooling in them. The expression on the Norn's face said it as plainly as if the goddess had shouted it from a rooftop.

_It's just not fair!_

"Would you like me to tell him?" Sayoko offered in a whisper.

At this idea, Urd began to cry in earnest. She knew why. Urd wanted to tell Keiichi herself. After six years of living together, and at least two of hiding how she really felt, Urd wanted to be the one to tell him, not have him find out in a "Urd likes you!" moment as if the two were in high school.

"How do you think Keiichi feels?" Sayoko asked her. She was almost certain he felt the same way, but the fake Belldandy might have thrown things off or renewed his faith in the other woman's return.

Urd picked her head up and looked at Sayoko. She bit her lip and shook her head.

Sayoko looked at her sadly. "I'm sorry, Urd."

The girl regarded the goddess quietly and made a decision. "Why don't you stay here tonight? Think things over? Get some real rest?"

Urd inhaled and let out a long, thoughtful breath. Finally, she nodded once and rested her head on the table again.

"Okay," Sayoko told her. "I'll fix us something to eat."

888

"It must be wonderful to have your sister back," Sif told Urd as she placed tea cups between them.

"Yeah," Urd told her with a forced smile. "It's great."

The blonde must have detected the hesitancy in the Norn's voice. She sat down and rested her elbows on the table, her chin in her hands. "What's wrong?"

Urd ran her finger around the rim of her teacup and bit her lip. "Look, it sounds horrible to say, but..." She paused as if trying to decide whether to continue. "...but a part of me wishes she hadn't yet."

Rather than get angry, Sif smiled gently. "It must be difficult," she said. "Normally, it's the younger sister who lives in the shadow of the elder."

The Norn tapped her finger against her teacup. "I think... she's going to make a move on Keiichi."

Sif giggled in disbelief. "Now you're being silly, Urd! Whatever hard feelings Belldandy may have... and you will have to admit they are justified... Belldandy would not attempt to steal another woman's husband. She wouldn't..."

"...Do what I did to her?" Urd asked sadly.

"That's not what I meant," Sif told her with a touch of defensiveness.

"But it's true," Urd told her. "Sif... I've been married to him for four years, slept in his bed for six, and it's been wonderful. And I've tried to keep it out of mind, but every so often when he would touch me or kiss me or hold me... I'd think, 'My God... this is what I've taken from her.'" She paused and bit her lip. "And now she's back, and I can't keep it out of my head... And a part of me is afraid that it's her turn to take those things from me... and I can't help but feel that I deserve it."

"Urd," Sif began quietly. "Love isn't a game where you add up the score at the end to see who wins. Whatever Belldandy and Keiichi had, he married _you_."

"She wants to take him back, you know," Urd pointed out.

"Now, I'm genuinely insulted!" Sif said. "I'm insulted twice! First, by your lack of faith in Belldandy, who might love Keiichi from the bottom of her heart, but also loves _you_! And second, by your lack of faith in Keiichi, your own _husband_!"

Urd sat back, half chastened, half defensive.

"You have no idea how much Keiichi loves you," Sif told her sadly. Her voice turned distant. "It's frightening sometimes..."

The Norn blinked at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean no offense, Urd," Sif said quickly. "But... with your heritage... you don't really have a firm grasp on what love in Heaven is like."

"Hey! Now, wait just a..."

"Please, hear me out!" Sif interrupted her. "I'm sorry, but you don't. Love between gods and goddesses is a transcendental experience that rises above many physical, cultural and emotional bonds. But you are half demon, and Keiichi is a mortal. And love for both can be very different. It's still love, and it's still wonderful, and it's still pure!" she argued. "But from the outside looking in... it can be frightening to watch."

Urd rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Sif. It's not my fault you don't have a boyfriend!"

"What?!"

The Norn grinned evilly. "Don't worry, I'm sure there's someone out there for you. Hey! How about Mischa!?"

Sif sniffed indignantly and silently let out a sigh of relief...

Relief that Urd didn't press her further.

888

"Every time I think the two of you are about to begin your relationship, something else happens," Belldandy pointed out as she and Keiichi walked down the park's walking path.

Keiichi sighed. "I..." He broke off and looked away. "Belldandy," he said softly. "It's not like I was trying to..."

Belldandy looked down at her feet.

"One day, it just happened," he said.

"When?" she asked suddenly. "When did it happen?"

"A few months after that," he returned. "It's a long story..."

"I've noticed that," she told him gently but with a distinct edge.

"What do you want from me?" he asked her suddenly. "No matter what I tell you, the bottom line is that I didn't wait, okay?! I said I would wait, and I didn't!"

Belldandy looked up at him and saw the tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "But at the same time, I'm not..." He took a few steps away and ran his hands through his hair.

"Keiichi san," she said quietly. "I don't want to hurt you. I can tell you love Neesan, it's just... I don't understand how it got to this. Would you have fallen in love with Neesan if I hadn't been sealed?"

"Probably not," he admitted. "But with Urd it was different, I mean... With you it was like that!" He snapped his fingers in emphasis. "You showed up one day, and I was in love. Urd and I... we... we _grew_ together, like two vines that meet and wrap around each other. It took time, but once it took..." He trailed off.

"And how you felt for me..." she began carefully. "Wasn't enough to keep it at bay?"

"Oh, God," he whispered. He looked up, his jaw set. "No. No, I'm sorry, but it wasn't. Because I was in love with her."

888

"Why do you think he gave up on her?" Urd asked slowly.

"You are determined to beat this issue to death, aren't you?" Sif asked in return. "To pick at it until you find some way to cast blame upon yourself for an imagined sin." She leaned across the table and captured Urd's eyes in her own. "What happened... happened... And could not have happened any other way."

"Destiny?" Urd asked.

"Is it so difficult to believe?" Sif asked. "Desdemona said as much."

"And if Destiny had decided not to involve herself?" Urd asked painfully. "Would I be here today, as I am, if she had simply left things to be.?"

"Give yourself some credit, Urd," Sif told her. "And consider certain key facts: the differences in your relationship with Keiichi and Belldandy's. Consider that in the three years they were together they kissed what? Three times? Four? Said 'I love you,' twice? In the first three years of _your_ relationship with him... he married you. What does that tell you?"

"That he settled?" Urd asked with an ironic smile.

Sif gave her a disappointed look. "You have to step out of Belldandy's shadow," she said. "From everything I've seen and heard, I think Keiichi put Belldandy on a pedestal. He never stopped seeing her as a goddess, whereas he saw you differently. Keiichi loved Belldandy the goddess, but he fell in love with Urd the woman."

"What are you saying?" Urd whispered.

"That because of your nature, Urd, because you, like mortals, walk the line between light and dark, you always had more in common with Keiichi san," Sif told her. "Because the gulf between you and he was always narrower than the one between him and Belldandy. If anyone was to enjoy a successful union with a mortal, Urd... it was you."

Urd thought on this as Sif went on.

"And give Keiichi some credit as well," she urged. "He knew when he first said he loved you what he was doing, the implications. He was not some little boy you tricked. He was a man... telling you what he wanted out of life."

"What if he wants Belldandy?" Urd asked her. "I could never beat her. Not at anything."

"If he wants Belldandy," Sif said with a deep breath, "Then maybe you won't be able to stop it." She smiled. "But you needn't worry. Keiichi san loves you."

Urd suddenly stood up and started for the door.

"Where are you going?" Sif asked quickly.

"I can't tell the future," Urd told her. "But I know someone who can."

888

The silence was deafening, and she hated it. It was as if Keiichi's pronouncement had left a vacuum in its wake, sucking the life out of them both as they walked. She didn't want it to be like that. She didn't want to be uncomfortable around Keiichi. She loved him. Even if he was married to Urd, she loved him, and she didn't want to see him like this.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I... I am..."

"There's nothing to apologize for," he replied quietly. "You have a right to be angry."

"I don't _want_ to be angry," Belldandy told him. "If you love Neesan, then I want to be happy for you, I just... I want to know what I did wrong..."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Belldandy," he said.

She choked off her next argument, knowing it would only circle them around again. All she could hope for now was that the rest of the story would have the answers she wanted.

"I'm sorry," she said again. "Please continue."

_Seven years ago... _

"Hey," Keiichi said as he stepped inside and took off his jacket. "Urd back yet?"

Sif shook her head. "We haven't heard from her."

He looked out the window where the sun was starting to go down. The mortal thought for sure she would have come home by now.

"Shall we go look for her?" Sif asked him with concern.

He thought for a moment. She was still injured, unable to communicate, and it was getting dark. He nodded. "Yeah," he said quietly. "You take the high road, and I'll go low."

"I'll ask Skuld and Peorth to help..."

His face turned in disgust. So far the other two goddess had done little more than... He stopped that thought. They were trying. They really were.

"Is Peorth still here?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied. "I think she wants to speak with you before she leaves."

He started pulling his jacket back on as this sunk in. "Okay," he said tiredly. "Skuld stays here in case Urd calls... unlikely as that is. The three of us will go look for her."

Sif watched him walk down the hall toward Peorth's room and sighed. Urd was awake, things were supposed to be happy again, and yet it seemed like everyone was even more distant than before.

888

He knocked on Peorth's door and watched it slowly slide open. Peorth regarded him for a moment before turning and silently walking back inside. Keiichi followed her, standing just inside the door, waiting for her to say her peace.

She wouldn't face him, instead resting her hands on her dresser. Finally, he said something.

"Urd's missing," he said. "Sif and I are going after her. Will you help?"

The goddess nodded twice, still not facing the mortal.

Keiichi let out an angry breath. He didn't have time for this. "Okay. Why don't you go check out the bars on the south side?" He turned to leave, when the goddess's voice stopped him.

"Keiichi, wait!"

He stopped inside the doorframe and waited, willing to give her three more seconds.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice an array of pleading defensiveness. "You're right. I didn't think about you so much as I thought about you _and_ Belldandy. I was trying to do the right thing..."

"If you were so concerned, then why not come and talk to me?" he asked. "Why this elaborate subterfuge? Why the manipulation?"

"Because as goddesses, our role is to make you happy," Peorth pleaded. "Because whether you end up with Belldandy or Urd or me, the one common goal we all had was your happiness. How would accusing you of betraying Belldandy make you happy? How would laying layer upon layer of guilt on you have done that?"

"So you would have tricked me into being happy," Keiichi concluded. "Next time, just get me hooked on drugs. It's easier."

"Keiichi..."

He whirled on her. "Who I 'end up with,' is _my_ decision!" he hissed. "And the decision of whoever that someone happens to be; whether it's Belldandy, Urd, Kiyoshi, Hotaru, a Dallas cheerleader or a purple sheep! You tried to trick me into loving you and when Urd called you on it you ratted her out to me like this was a goddamn soap opera! Whatever she felt, whatever I felt, I'm sure she didn't want it disclosed like that, and I sure as _hell_ don't appreciate learning about it while you tried to convince me she had a screw loose!"

Peorth stood there and took it as Keiichi continued.

"Because despite everything you've said, she never did _anything_ wrong!" he hissed. "_You_ tried to betray Belldandy before _she_ ever did!"

"What are you going to tell Urd?" Peorth asked.

He held her gaze with hard eyes for several moments. "I'm going to tell her you're leaving," he said. "That they need you in Heaven. That should make her day. As for the rest, we're never going to discuss it again. And when Belldandy does come back, you're going to keep your big mouth shut about all of it. And if I ever..._ever_... hear Sif say that she heard a rumor in Heaven about how Urd loves Keiichi or Urd betrayed Belldandy, I'll know _exactly_ where it came from, and then I _will_ tell Urd everything. Then you can make your excuses to _her_."

Peorth wiped a tear from her eyes. "I... I never meant to hurt anyone, Keiichi," she said quietly. "I wanted to help you..."

"I'm a big boy," he said. "I don't need your help. You take the bars on the southside. Sif will go north. I'm going to check all the old..."

"Keiichi san! Phone for you!" Sif's voice interrupted.

He took a breath and stepped into the hall, walking briskly toward the phone in the hallway. He tried to let the anger go, but it was hard. It wasn't as if he had fallen in love with Peorth or anything, but they had shared a few nice moments together, and learning that it was all calculated, that it was part of a scheme, that if she had succeeded, he might have fallen in love with her, married her, had _children_ with her... it was a betrayal on such a deep level, he was afraid nothing would be the same between them.

Sif held the phone out to him, and he snatched it up.

"Moshi moshi," he said bitterly.

"Keiichi? It's Sayoko."

Anger was quickly replaced by panic. "Sayoko?! Are you okay?! Is it time?!"

"Time?" she asked skeptically. "Keiichi, I'm only five months along..."

"Oh... right," he said sheepishly. "Look, I've been meaning to get in contact with you," he said apologetically. "But with Belldandy and now Urd, it's just..."

"I know," Sayoko interrupted. "Urd's here."

He shook his head in startlement. "She's with you?!"

"Yeah, she showed up this afternoon kind of upset," Sayoko told him. "I know she can't speak, but she really couldn't explain why..."

"It's severe aphasia," Keiichi supplied. "Basically, she thinks she's saying one thing, but it comes out gibberish."

"Ah, that explains it... I guess..." she said. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me how she got aphasia or what happened to the 'Belldandy who wasn't Belldandy?'"

Keiichi winced. "Look... you know enough about them to know that it wasn't a car accident or something..."

"Yeah, I figured..."

"So... can I just say that a wizard did it or something?" he asked.

He heard her sigh. "Keiichi, one day you're going to tell me everything, okay?" she told him. "Just promise me that?"

Keiichi bit his lip. "Yeah," he said. "Okay." He took a breath and paused. "So, is she okay?"

"She's asleep," Sayoko told him. "I guess whatever your wizard did, it's got her kind of weak."

He nodded to himself. Nyd had warned them as much.

"She's going to spend the night here," she went on. "I was wondering if you would like to do the same."

The boy blinked at the sudden invitation. "Me?"

"You two need to talk... alone," she told him. "Or... at least play a good game of charades. The point is she's hurting, and I think you're a part of that."

His fight with Peorth came back to him. "Yeah," he admitted quietly. "Okay. Where are you?" He jotted down her address and frowned. "You're on the south side?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, it's just that..." He snapped the thought off and went in a different direction. "You know, you're welcome to your old room. I'm sorry that we... that I... didn't believe you. I wish I had."

He could almost see her smile on the other end of the phone. "It's okay, Keiichi. I kinda like it here. Sure, the Yakuza own most of it, but no one messes with the pregnant lady. There are still _some_ standards among men."

"Okay," he said. "I'll be right over."

888

Urd stalked into the gypsy carnival and made a beeline for Desdemona's tent. Pulling the tent flap aside, she marched inside and slapped a thousand yen note on the table.

"Desdemona, I got money and I want my palm read!" she declared before her eyes even had time to adjust to the light. Once they did, she realized the person sitting on the other side of the table wasn't the gypsy ghost, but something darker. "Who are you?" she asked.

Ameko leaned back in her chair and offered a warm smile. "I'm a friend of Keiichi's," she said.

"Uh huh," Urd noted, slowly circling the table like a tiger with a meal on her mind. "Keiichi doesn't know any demons."

"Quite the contrary, he knows quite a few," Ameko corrected as she played with one of her long, purple ponytails. "He knows Marller, doesn't he?"

"Let me correct myself," Urd said with a syrupy sweet smile. "He doesn't know any demons he _likes_."

The demoness shrugged.

"Now what are you doing here?" Urd asked again. "And where is Desdemona?"

"She left," Ameko said simply.

"And you had nothing to do with that, I guess," Urd said snidely.

"Me? No, nothing," Ameko said with a grin. "I'm here at the behest of your mother, long may she wisely reign over us, who wanted to make sure that her gift to you did not put any undue stress on your... situation."

"There is so much wrong with that statement, I'm not sure where to start," Urd told her. "Let's start with the gift part."

"Her Majesty set your half-sister free as a sort of baby shower gift," Ameko oozed as she uncoiled from her seat like a rattlesnake.

"Why now?" Urd growled.

"Your last conversations with your mother hurt her deeply," Ameko informed her. Urd started to froth. "She wanted you to know that she wishes to open a new chapter between the two of you. Belldandy's release is a peace-offering."

"Get out!" Urd hissed.

The demoness rose from her seat and bowed low. "I will not stay where I am not invited." She took a step back into the shadows and was simply no longer there.

Urd sat at the table and bit her lip, wishing she hadn't acted so rashly. She should have gotten the demon's name. She said she knew Keiichi. How? When she mentioned her last conversation with her mother, she simply lost it...

She folded her hands in front of her and took a deep breath. She shut her eyes tightly. This was something she didn't need right now.

_Seven years ago..._

He knocked and waited only a moment before Sayoko opened the door and let him in. The boy opened his mouth to speak, but stopped short when he saw Urd asleep on the futon and whispered instead.

"Five floors, Sayoko?" he asked. "That's not good for you. I really wish you'd come back to the temple."

"Closed topic, Keiichi," she said regally as she walked to the stove. She poured him a cup of tea and bade him to sit down. He gave the sleeping goddess another look before sitting down, his back to Urd.

"So... what happened?" Sayoko asked.

He had already decided not to go into great detail, but also knew he didn't have to.

"She saved my life," he said simply. "And it nearly killed her."

"From the other Belldandy?" she surmised. He nodded, and she took a breath, looking over his shoulder at her.

"She was in a coma for two weeks," he whispered. "They weren't sure she would even wake up, and when she did, she could only speak in gibberish." He shook his head. "It's like she just can't win."

"So what happens now?" she asked. "Can something be done?"

He shook his head again. "I've got three... of her people... at the temple, but there's nothing they can really do."

"What about you?" she asked. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," he said. "I mean... if they can't do anything, what can I possibly do?"

Sayoko looked down at the table for a moment and licked her lips. "Keiichi... I think you can probably do more than anyone."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"When I was eight years old," Sayoko began quietly. "My mom... got sick. My father turned his company upside down looking for a cure. For a couple of years, Nergal was the biggest cancer research organization in the world. Every doctor or researcher who ever studied cancer was brought in, he worked day and night, trying to help her."

"I'm sorry," Keiichi said softly. "I didn't know."

She smiled wanly. "Finally, she told him to stop. She said the best thing he could ever do for her was be with her. That's all she really wanted. So he gave it to her."

Keiichi digested this as she went on.

"You don't have to cure her, Keiichi," she said with a smile. "Just give her what she really wants."

The pilot looked extremely uncomfortable. "I'm not sure I can give her what she wants," he said.

Sayoko grinned. "Then start by giving her what you can."

888

Keiichi opened his eyes and found himself looking at the Earth floating above him. Sitting upright, he looked around and found nothing but a gray, lifeless landscape full of craters.

"Hello, Keiichi san!"

He turned his head so fast he nearly broke his own neck. "BELLDANDY?!" he cried.

The goddess was laying out a blanket, which she kneeled on and began to root through a picnic basket.

"Where the... What the..." he began "Belldandy, why are we on the moon?!" Keiichi cried. "What the hell is going on?!"

The goddess clapped the moon dust off her hand and brought her blue eyes to bear on him. "I didn't want you to get the wrong idea," she said. "I know you and Neesan sometimes have dreams about me, and you're never sure if they're dreams or visions. I thought this might help you differentiate between a vision from Belldandy and a visit from your subconscious."

"What?!" he cried.

Belldandy didn't answer, instead calmly serving tea.

"Okay," Keiichi breathed. "Look, you obviously brought me to this crazy dreamscape for a reason," he hinted.

"Ah!" Belldandy prompted, holding a pair of chopsticks up. Keiichi took a distracted bite. "And to answer your question, I thought it would be a good idea for us to talk."

"O... kay," Keiichi returned. "What would you like to talk about?"

Belldandy smiled gently at him and patted his knee. "Keiichi san, you need to get your head out of your ass."

"Pardon?" he asked.

"You're taking on too much guilt," she told him. "You feel guilty about the Shinden, you feel guilty about not noticing Urd's feelings, and you feel guilty about not realizing that Titan wasn't me. It's too much. You have to let some of it go."

Keiichi rubbed his temples.

"Keiichi san, really, you need to start making conscious decisions about where your life's path will lead," Belldandy told him.

"Okay, I'll bite," he said straightening up and meeting the woman's eyes. "What do you recommend?"

"In a few months you'll be 25," she told him. "A quarter of your life expectancy, maybe more. When you look back, do you want nothing but regrets?"

"I don't regret anything," he said.

"Truly?" she asked. She held up a brown disc. "Moon Pie?"

"No, thank you," he said.

"You don't regret crashing the Shinden?" she asked.

He froze. "No," he said after a moment.

"But why?" Belldandy asked, sipping at her tea.

"Because it saved Urd," he said.

"And that's all you care about, isn't it?" she asked bitterly. "Urd. It's always about Urd. Not me or Peorth or Sif.... It's always about HER, isn't it!?"

"Of course not," he shot back.

She stood up and faced him. "Tell me what you want, Keiichi," she demanded.

"I... I don't know..." he answered honestly.

The goddess grabbed him by the front of the shirt. "Tell me what you want!" she ordered again.

"Belldandy!" he gasped.

"Tell me!" she growled. "GIVE ME THE KEY TO YOUR HEART!"

His eyes snapped open, and he jerked awake to find a yellow wall staring back at him. He took a couple of quick breaths, and blinked sleep out of his eyes just in time to hear someone whisper anxiously nearby.

"Aim kneecap ballcap net printer microphone?!" Urd whispered from the other side of the room.

"Just relax," Sayoko whispered back. "The two of you need some time to work things out. Just have some breakfast and.... um... communicate..."

"Microwave lampshade violet!" Urd hissed.

Sayoko smiled. "Just make sure you lock up on your way out," she said, grabbing her purse as she started for the door.. At Urd's nervous look, she flashed a grin and waved. "Buh bye."

The door shut behind her. Urd turned and saw him looking at her. Her eyes were filled with trepidation as he sat up and ran his hand through his hair.

"Um... hey," he said. "Are you... feeling any better?"

She turned and bit her lip, nodding quickly.

He cleared his throat and took a breath. "Dammit, it shouldn't be like this," he said, rising to his feet. "Look, a lot of crap has happened in the last few weeks, but that doesn't mean we have to dance around each other like this."

The goddess took a breath and gave him a prodding look.

"I mean..." he began. "It's... Look... just tell me what's bothering you." Before she could fix him with a withering look, he amended it. "I don't mean talk... just... you know!"

She took a deep breath and waved her hand in the air, her pinky and thumb spread out like wings.

"The Shinden?" he asked.

She nodded sadly and sat down. The goddess pointed at him, then made the wave again before dropping her hand to her side and staring down at the table.

"Oh," he whispered, suddenly getting it. "Oh, no, Urd, you can't blame yourself for that."

Urd looked up at him and made the wave for a third time, this time her hand impacted the table top. She then pointed to herself and shook her head before gesturing to him.

Keiichi swallowed and bit his lip. "Yeah, it sucks," he agreed. "I thought we might get away clean too, but we didn't. We lost her." He took a deep breath as the guilt and grief he'd buried started to bubble up from within. "I don't really know what to think about that," he said. "But I do know that it's not your fault."

Urd didn't look convinced.

"I don't know what else I can say," he said. "Except... that I'd do it again... And I know she would too."

She couldn't help but smile a little at the sentiment. The goddess straightened and tried to look regal, but it faltered a moment later when he started to laugh. She gave him a stern look that demanded answers.

"Nothing," he said. "It's just that... you kind of remind me of World of Elegance."

At her puzzled look, he went on.

"I mean... I know you can hear her talk because you're connected, but from the outside looking in, all I have to go on is her expressions and her body language," he said. "Now it's the same way with you. Kind of like an angel."

Urd's smile broadened, almost touching her ears.

"Is that a good thing?" he asked stupidly. "I mean... it's kind of true, I guess. You've kind of been my guardian angel for the last three years... so..."

"Gremlin," she said quietly and shook her head in amused resignation. "Poker baboon."

"I'm going to assume that means 'shut up,'" he said with a smile. "You ready to go home?" he asked.

She paused a moment and then nodded.

"Okay," he whispered. "Let's go home."

888

"I don't see why I have to go," Skuld said as she hefted her bag up to the warm bath and placed it on the edge of the tub. "I can help!"

"You need to go back to school, Skuld," Keiichi told her. "We got everything under control here."

"Yeah, but..."

"Didn't you like school, Skuld chan?" Sif asked.

"Well, yeah, it's awesome, but..." The girl sighed and looked over at Urd, who was standing on Keiichi's left as the group faced her. "I mean... I wanna help," she pouted.

Urd stepped forward and knelt next to her. The two estranged sisters stared at one another for a moment before Urd held her arms out, and Skuld stepped into them, hugging the elder Norn fiercely.

"I'm sorry," Skuld whimpered. "About everything, I mean. Don't send me away. I don't want to be away anymore."

"Skuld chan, you're not being pushed away," Sif told her gently. "I'm leaving too."

Urd looked up in surprise at that statement. Sif smiled down at her. "Keiichi san and I discussed it," she explained.

"Sif's going to check in on us every so often," Keiichi told her. "But we both decided that what you need is some time."

The Norn looked alarmed for a moment, her eyes locked onto Keiichi.

"Oh, Keiichi san's staying," Sif assured her, guessing her concern. "Someone has to look after you, after all."

Urd looked away as if embarrassed at getting caught.

Skuld bit her lip. "Look," she said. "If you need anything..."

"Thanks, Skuld," Keiichi said.

"I would like to speak with Urd alone for a moment, if I may," Sif broke in with a raised hand. Urd nodded, and they strolled out of the bathroom as Skuld sunk below the hot water in the tub. The two goddesses walked down the hallway toward the back door and koi pond outside.

The blonde regarded the blue sky for a moment, basking in the sun's gentle touch, as her eyes closed in joy. "It's such a beautiful day, isn't it?" she asked.

Urd nodded and let out a breath. Sif opened her eyes and smiled at the other goddess.

"I've been giving your situation a great deal of thought these last few days," Sif told her."And while I don't know what the cure is, I think I know something that may help." She turned to the Norn and smiled. "I want to give you something."

Urd blinked at her. "Tire iron?"

Sif closed her eyes and held her right hand up. The sunlight around them seemed to congeal in her hand, twisting and writhing until it finally took shape and coalesced into a physical form. The goddess opened her eyes and held the item out to Urd.

The Norn's eyes traced over the violin in Sif's hand, the polished wood and golden strings a perfect harmony of design and function.

"No, it's not Ameri," Sif told her, guessing the question in Urd's eyes. "This is Midori, Ameri's companion. She was to go to my sister before she... got sick," Sif finished with a bite of her lip. "I think she can help you."

Urd's hand went to her chest, and Sif nodded.

"Your problem is communication," Sif explained. "And what is music but communicating the feelings in your heart to another?"

The Norn shook her head and waved the offer aside.

"You'll learn," Sif assured her. "It takes time and a great deal of practice, but I think this will help you. And really, what else are you going to do with your time?"

Urd opened her mouth to protest, but Sif's gentle smile closed it again. She smiled and instead took the violin from her.

"Don't get discouraged," Sif warned. "Midori can help you learn faster than a mortal would, but it still requires patience and an ear to listen for the harmonies."

The older goddess appeared rather confused on just how to hold the instrument, but Sif was certain she would get the hang of it. She stepped up onto the edge of the koi pond and bowed low.

"You are in good hands, Urd," she said. "And I know happiness is near for you. Don't give up hope."

With that, the blonde hopped into the koi pond without even a splash and disappeared from sight.

Urd sighed and held the musical instrument at arm's length.

"Hey."

She turned and found Keiichi walking down the steps toward her.

"Sif leave already?"

The Norn nodded and looked at the violin again.

"She gave you her viola?" Keiichi asked questioningly.

She shook her head but didn't elaborate.

"You know," he said. "I play the kazoo. We can start a band," he joked.

Urd rolled her eyes, and Keiichi started back to the house.

"I'm going to start dinner," he said.

The goddess watched him go and eyed the violin warily, like someone just said, "Here! Have a baby!" and thrust a newborn into her arms. She plucked lightly at the strings with her fingernail and took a breath.

888

Keiichi dumped some vegetables into a stewpot and went to cut some chicken. With Sif and Skuld gone it was once again just him and Urd. Roomies. Buddies...

_Right, whatever..._ one part of his mind threw in.

He had been up most of the night talking with Sif, going over ideas of how to help Urd, but it was Sayoko's advice that kept coming to the fore. And one thing he knew for sure, Urd wasn't going to get better with Skuld strapping her to strange machines or Sif hovering over her or Peorth pushing her buttons. Urd needed normalcy... or at least what passed for normalcy here.

The violin was a bit of a twist. Sif didn't mention it, and he wondered if it was perhaps a last-minute thing she had come up with. But if she did plan to give it to her, he wondered why she wouldn't tell him.

And then he heard it.

He winced as the sound of a cat being dragged across a floor of broken glass outside invaded his ear canal and started running its fingernails on his eardrums. It was supposed to be "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." He could tell that much, but it was simply...

He growled. "Sif," he breathed. "Now, I get it."

Sighing, he went back to cutting chicken, wincing at every high-pitched screech from the violin. Maybe it would help Urd, and if it did, great.

He just hoped it would help her soon.


	29. Special Delivery

_**Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine.**_

_**Ah! My Goddess!**_

_**Haloes**_

_**Chapter 29**_

_**Special Delivery**_

Keiichi sat on the concrete edge of the park fountain as he paused and searched Belldandy's eyes for understanding. She had always been hard to read, her innermost thoughts hidden behind a veil of innocent naiveté, but this time it was a little easier. As she stood there before him, he could see the dread in her eyes. Even knowing the eventual outcome, and even determined to hear it all, she could still see the end coming closer, like the light of an oncoming train in a dark tunnel.

"Why did you send the others away?" Belldandy asked.

"For Urd," he replied. "Something Sayoko said got me thinking. She said I should give her what I can. Well, I couldn't give her what she really wanted, so I thought I'd give her what I could, which is a little peace and quiet on earth. Peorth and Sif being... well... fully functional, I guess you'd say... made her uncomfortable, and Skuld had a tendency to try too hard."

"I see," Belldandy said, obviously not seeing. "Then what?"

Before he could answer, the sound of jet engines whistled overhead. Keiichi looked up and saw a small private jet glide overhead toward the runway.

"Come on," he said. "That's our partner in the Shinden Two." He started down the path again, toward the airport. Belldandy fell into step next to him.

"And then what?" she prompted again, not willing to let go.

"I honestly thought she'd give it up," he said as they walked. "But she kept playing the violin."

_Six years ago..._

November had made way for December, and Christmas was over before they knew it. The new year was greeted with snow, and as Keiichi sat at the table on the sixth day of that new year, the sound of butchered compositions broke into his house and assaulted his ears, making it utterly impossible to read over the NIT course listings.

She was getting better. He had to admit that. He could at least recognize the songs she was trying to play now. And he did have to give her credit for keeping up with it. When she wasn't modeling for Teletha or helping Kiyoshi volunteer at the hospital, she could be found either on the roof, trying to entertain the sky or in the backyard, playing for the trees, a captive audience that Keiichi actually pitied given that, unlike the squirrels, _they_ couldn't run away.

After two months, though his ears might disagree, he had to hand it to Sif for her stroke of genius.

She must have known, as he did, that Urd, already an accomplished drinker, might actually fall further into a sake bottle where she could pity herself without interruption. It actually hadn't dawned on him as a possibility until, just after the other goddesses had left, Keiichi had been putting groceries away and had come face to face with their alcohol stores.

But, by some miracle, it never happened. Keiichi wasn't arrogant enough to assume it was his presence that kept her dry, so it must have been the violin. Every free moment she had was spent running the bow over the golden strings and her lips off the end of a bottle. She still drank, but the student pilot had noticed it was coming less and less frequently. Come to think of it, she hadn't requested he pick up a bottle for her in three weeks.

He did wonder, though, if it would last. Two months had passed, and every spoken word was nonsense. They had had one false alarm two weeks back, when he had asked what she wanted for breakfast and she had replied, "noodles." He was so ecstatic he hugged her and cheered. To which she had replied, "Monkey oven fruit donkey."

They had noodles anyway.

But how long could a new hobby keep her from depression? The inability to simply speak had to be maddening. After two months, he had learned to understand her a little better through common signs and body language, but everyone else was lost. If this condition had done anything, it had forced him to pay much more attention to the Norn. A barely arched eyebrow, a droop of a lip, a pat of her hand on her thigh all meant as much as her renting a billboard in regards to broadcasting her thoughts.

There was a knock at the door, and he gave up, shutting the NIT catalogue with a sigh and calling out above the music. "Come in!"

Megumi poked her head into the kitchen and winced. "She's gotten.... better," she allowed.

"Hey, if it keeps her happy, I'll live with it," he said, rising to his feet to pick up the tea kettle on the stove. "Tea?"

"Sure," she replied, taking a seat at the table. "She really is getting better, though," she said, almost in apology for her remark.

He shrugged as he placed the teacup in front of her. "If it makes her happy," he repeated. "So," he continued, taking his seat across from her. "What's up?"

She leaned forward as if to share a dark secret. "Toshio and I are going for it," she said.

"'Going for it?'"

His sister nodded. "We've gone back and forth with his family on this over and over again, and we're sick of it. We're going to elope."

"Wow," he breathed. "They're that bad?"

She shook her head in disbelief. "They want a _huge_ deal," she told him. "His mom said, and I swear to God, these are her exact words... 'But Toshi chan, it's only five million yen!'"

He whistled. "How much were _they_ going to offer up?"

Megumi chuckled. "Yeah, interesting thing," she said. "Here's a hint, _not_ five million yen." She sat back and shook her head. "So we've had it. A month from now, we're going to do it. Then, when school lets out for summer, we're off to Paris!"

"Have you talked to Keima and Takano about this?" Keiichi asked.

"I had to do some wheeling and dealing," she said in response. "They understand, having eloped themselves. They agreed to pass on giving me crap about it as long as they get the first visit after the baby's born."

"Oh, well that's goo.....oo....o......oooo...." he trailed off, his eyebrow going up. "I'm sorry, what?"

Megumi smiled goofily. "Surprise," she said. "Uncle Kei chan!"

He stared at her, eyes wide in shock. Suddenly shot to his feet and pointed angrily at the door.

"I'M GOING TO GO BEAT THAT GUY'S ASS _RIGHT NOW!_"

Megumi sighed, her eyes narrowed. "Kei chan..."

"He's... I mean... You and he.... you shouldn't be... how did this... I mean... how...?"

The young woman rolled her eyes. "Hey, Kei chan, just because you're not getting any doesn't mean you have to cock-block the rest of us..."

"Megumi!"

"Can you please just be happy about this?" Megumi asked deadpan. "We're not freaked out... anymore... about it... We're actually very happy..."

Keiichi took a breath and felt like an ass. "Of course I'm happy for you," he said. "It's just so soon, you know?"

"Well, the good news is I graduate this semester," Megumi told him. "I'll just have to wait a few years before I start my career."

Keiichi bit his lip. He knew it was hard to juggle a career and parenthood, and that part of him that was old fashioned Japanese male told him the kid would be better off if Megumi stayed home. Of course, he didn't say that out loud for fear of the beating he would receive for it.

"So, anyway," Megumi went on. "We need to borrow your temple next month."

"Sure," he said with a shrug. "It doesn't come with a priest, though."

"Hmmm," Megumi said in thought. "I don't suppose Urd or Sif can marry people?" she asked. "You know... them being goddesses and all?"

"I don't think the Japanese government would accept their signature on the marriage license," Keiichi said with a smile. "Though, it would probably be the most binding marriage in history."

Megumi chuckled. "Maybe Urd can fix it so every time he looks at another girl he gets hit by lightning," she joked.

"Why? Is that an issue?" Keiichi suddenly asked, his voice deadly serious.

The woman sighed and shook her head in exasperation. "Ease down there, Ripley. You're just grinding metal..."

"Sorry," he said. "Old habits die hard."

Megumi smiled. "So, anyway, more important stuff to ask."

"Okay," he said, bracing himself.

"Well, since we're eloping, we're keeping this whole event really small," Megumi told him. "Toshio would like you to be best man, and I'd like Urd to be my maid of honor."

"Well, sure!" Keiichi replied with a grin. "I'm sure Urd would love that."

"Great! I'll let you know the specifics as we get there," she told him, rising to her feet. "In the meantime, I gotta jet. Gonna drop off my course selections. Did you decide what courses to take?"

"Probably just retake the stuff they stiffed me on last semester," he said bitterly. "Just trying to figure out if I want to sleep in every day or get them out of the way."

"Yeah, I see your problem," she said. "You're either free in the evening to take Urd out or you're free to sleep in... um... afterward." She grinned.

"Megumi..." he said in a warning tone.

The girl laughed. "I swear, Kei chan, this place doesn't NEED a priest as long as you live here!" With that last shot, she skipped out the front door, leaving her older brother alone to thumb through the NIT catalogue again.

888

He found her right where he expected to, in the grove, playing to the trees. Her eyes were closed in intense concentration, and it was obvious to Keiichi that she wasn't just going through the motions. She was trying to calculate every stroke of the bow, determine the precise placement of each finger.

She really was getting better.

The Norn must have noticed his approach because the bow left the strings, and she turned toward him and smiled. She arched an eyebrow. _What's up?_

"Megumi just dropped by with some news," he said.

The Norn cocked her head. _Oh?_

"She and Toshio are getting married in a month, and they want to do it here, and they want us to be the best man and maid of honor," he said.

Urd broke out into a grin. She must have seen something in his eyes because she arched both eyebrows. _Something else?_

"They're going to have a baby," Keiichi told her.

The goddess's eyes went wide, and her grin touched her ears. She leapt forward and wrapped an arm around him, hugging him tightly. She stepped back and patted his chest. _Congratulations!_

"Yeah," he agreed. "Uncle Kei chan," he said with a smile. He shook his head. "God... I'm old. I'm 'Uncle Kei chan.'"

There must have been something in his tone, because the next thing he felt was Urd's hand on his shoulder. _You okay?_

"Yeah, I'm fine," he told her. "It's just..." He turned his head away for a moment. "You remember that night at Sayoko's?" At her nod, he continued. "I had a dream. I saw Belldandy... but it wasn't Belldandy... it was... weird. She said I had to get my head out of my ass..."

Urd snorted a laugh at the idea of her sister swearing so crassly.

He smiled, sharing the thought. "Yeah... but she said that I was getting older... and that I had to start making decisions about where I want my life to lead."

Her eyes widened for a moment, and she cocked her head. _And?_

He shook his head. "I don't know. Just that... God, Megumi... my little sister... married with a kid. And I'm still in school, still in the same temple, still trying to figure out what I want..."

Urd took a breath and looked down at the ground. _What do you think?_

"I don't know!" he complained. "Do you think I've been wasting my time?" he asked suddenly. "That I should have been doing more?"

She blinked twice and looked to the side before looking back at him with a bemused smile. _More what?_

"Living!" he replied immediately.

Urd rolled her eyes and shook her head. She reached out and tapped his chest before gesturing around him. _What do you call all of this?!_

He bit his lip. "Yeah, I know," he said. "I can't really call my life boring. But that's not what I mean. Lots of stuff has happened _to_ me, but what about the important stuff?"

The Norn put a hand on her hip. _Like what?_

"I don't know," he said quietly. "I just... feel old."

She smiled and squeezed his shoulder again. _You're an idiot._

"Gee, thanks," he said with a sardonic smile.

The goddess plucked errantly at the violin's strings. _You're welcome._

888

Keiichi picked up the dumbbells and started another set of curls. He needed some time to think, and the NIT gym was almost empty, most students still home on winter break before classes started again. Even though he wasn't flying anymore, he still kept in the habit of working out. If he was lucky, he'd be back in the cockpit again soon, maybe even flying demo.

_In what?_ a voice in his head asked.

He let out a breath. He didn't come here to think about this, but about his life. Megumi was getting married... MARRIED... and she was going to have a kid. How did that happen?

"Hey, Jinx."

Keiichi blinked and looked up from the bench to find Cake standing over him. Her gym bag was slung over her shoulder, and she looked distinctly uncomfortable for some reason.

"Hey, Cake," he said, putting the weight down. "What's up?"

"Well... I just... I haven't seen you in awhile, and I just wanted to say... that I'm really sorry!" she finished quickly.

"Sorry about what?" he asked, thoroughly puzzled.

"When the inspectors came, they asked about what happened that night when the storm hit and the tower got blasted," she explained. "They asked if you had clearance to take off... and I had to tell them..."

He waved that aside. "Cake, I didn't ask you to lie for me. I knew what I was doing. It's okay."

She sat down on the bench next to him. "That whole night was just bizarre," she said. "I mean... something hit the tower, and I would swear... SWEAR... it was two women wrestling..."

"Um... yeah," Keiichi agreed. "That's really weird."

Cake sighed. "Yeah. So... there's a rumor going around," she said quietly.

He sighed loudly. "And we know how reliable those are..."

"Yeah," she agreed quietly. "But... they say you ditched the Shinden to rescue a girl," she said. "And that the school is covering it up because they don't want to sound like they value the plane over the girl... you know, it being a historical treasure and everything."

Keiichi didn't say anything for a moment. "No one is covering anything up," he lied.

"But was it to save a girl?" she asked.

Since Urd and the Titan had nearly killed Cake and Kit Kat when they crashed into the tower, Keiichi decided a little honesty was in order. "Yeah," he admitted. "Yeah. My radio was out, and she was dying. So I ditched and swam out to get her."

"That... is so... romantic," Cake told him seriously.

The comment made him both angry and uncomfortable. "I didn't do it for tail, Cake," he growled.

"I didn't mean that!" she cried, waving her hands excitedly. "Just that... I mean... Damn, Jinx... A guy crashes an airplane like that to save a girl... Did you know her or..."

"Yeah," he said simply.

"Then she must really be something."

He sighed. "Yeah," he admitted. "She is."

"So what are you going to do now?" she asked, changing the subject. "I know... they kicked you out of the club..."

"They didn't kick me out," he said defensively. "They just won't let me be president."

Cake smiled. "So you still going to hang with us?"

"Sure," he said. "Well... I'm probably going to spend a little more time at Sukuya," he admitted. "Since I can't fly, I can at least work on the design stuff."

"That's cool," she said. "We all missed you. Even Jiroo."

Keiichi arched an eyebrow at her pronunciation of the greasemonkey's name. "How is Jiroo?" he asked.

"He's... He's good," she said quickly, with just a bit of nervousness.

"Uh huh," he agreed. "Tell him I said hi, would ya?"

"Sure!" she replied happily.

Keiichi got up to leave, deciding this work-out just wasn't going to happen. Besides, he still had a lot of thinking to do.

888

He had walked to the campus, so the walk back gave him an opportunity to think. As he stepped carefully over puddles of freezing water and patches of ice, he reflected on the last few years and speculated on the next few.

What if Belldandy had never been sealed? How different would it be today? Would he be taking this walk? Odds are he'd have never left the Auto Club. He would have graduated last year. Who knows what he would be doing? Would he be going home every day, warmly welcomed by the middle Norn, who would have prepared dinner as she had every day for three straight years? Would Skuld still be throwing bombs at him, Urd still trying to push potions on him, the four of them living together as an only slightly dysfunctional family?

What if he had allowed Urd to take Hild up on her offer? Belldandy would be back, but Urd would be gone. The family would still be broken. Skuld probably would have stayed, and Urd...

Urd, as they knew her, would have been gone forever.

No, looking back he couldn't say he made the wrong decision there.

But did making that decision rob him of _his_ destiny? Was this the way it was supposed to be?

_How long _can_ I wait?_ he asked himself.

_Forever!_ the automatic answer shot from his mind in reflex.

He remembered the first time he made the promise to himself, to Belldandy. To wait forever. He had been so certain of it, so sure of the rightness of it. Now, hearing it in his mind, it made him sad.

_If it wasn't for the Titan,_ he thought to himself, _would I even remember what her voice sounds like? Would I remember the shape of her eyes or her smile?_

Every day she slipped further away... or was he slipping? He didn't know anymore.

He had had three years with her. In three years they ate a lot of dinners, had a lot of adventures, and danced around what the end game should be.

_I never asked her for the things I really wanted,_ he thought. _ I never wanted crazy adventures or weirdness... I wanted a girlfriend and then a wife and then children... So why didn't I ask her for that?_

He was so sure that making that promise was the right thing to do, worth sacrificing for.

He had given up a lot to get to this point in life, and this point wasn't even where he wanted to be.

_So where should I be?_ he asked himself.

888

Urd was sitting in the kitchen, nursing a bottle of sake, when he arrived home. He saw her with the drink and arched an eyebrow. "Everything okay?"

She summoned the violin to her hands, then grabbed it around the neck and pretended to throttle it.

"Stuck, huh?" he asked.

The goddess sighed and shook her head in exasperation. _Yeah..._

"Well, I'm sure you'll get it," he said diplomatically. He sat down next to her and poured himself a cup of sake.

She arched an eyebrow. _You okay?_

He let out a breath.

Urd rolled her eyes. _You're still on that?_

"She's not coming back," he said suddenly.

The goddess was shocked into silence. Figuratively and literally. She stared at him, wide-eyed.

He saw the look on her face. "Is she?" he asked, finishing the statement.

She tried to put on an incredulous smile and shook her head. _Why would you think that?_

"I mean... she's going to come back... eventually," he went on. "But..." He looked down in shame. "I don't know what to do anymore."

She blinked in shock and looked away, unsure of what to say.

Keiichi blinked back tears. "I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to feel about her anymore," he said. "And that makes me feel awful. That's not the way it's supposed to be! I'm supposed to... I mean... I should..."

He felt her squeeze his shoulder, and he looked up at her. Sympathetic eyes peered into his own. _It's okay._

"It's not okay," he whispered with a shake of his head. "I'm not supposed to question it... I know... I'm supposed to..."

She squeezed harder, and he met her eyes again. The sympathetic eyes from before had turned hard and reproachful. She pointed at him. _For you! _

"For me?"

Urd nodded quickly. _You._ She searched for a way to say it better. She pointed at him and smiled brightly, her fingertips going to her dimples in an exaggerated grin. _Your happiness._

"Peorth said the same thing," he said.

Urd blinked, her eyes narrowing. _Peorth?_

Keiichi froze.

The goddess folded her arms over her chest. _What did she say?_

"Nothing," he said with a smile. "Just that... the reason she was so... um..."

Urd's eyes went wide in horror. _She told you!_

Keiichi stood up quickly and circled the table as Urd watched him in horrified embarrassment. "She didn't _want_ to tell me," he said. "She thought you were... um..."

The Norn's eyes could melt lead at this point. She folded her arms over her chest. _What?_

"Look, it's not important," he assured her. "I mean..."

Urd shot to her feet, the pillow she was on, shooting out from beneath her. _What?!_

"I mean... it is, but..."

That's when the phone rang.

Urd grit her teeth and stormed down the hall. Keiichi wondered for a moment if she was pissed, embarrassed, devastated or...

The sound of her door slamming rocked the house on its foundations.

Yeah, she's pissed.

The phone continued to ring. He sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."

_Well now what do I do?_ he asked himself. Was Urd really angry at him? Or was she just so embarrassed at finding out her secret was no longer a secret that rage was the only way to express it?

He sighed again as he picked up the phone. He'd have to talk to her about it later, work it out, let her know it was o...

"Keiichi? Is that you?" a stressed and pained voice asked as soon as the phone left the cradle.

"Sayoko?" he asked, shocked at the haggard sound of the voice. "Where are you? Are you okay?"

"Ke...Keiichi... I think it's time..."

"Time?" he asked stupidly. "TIME! OH CRAP! Yeah! Um... are you okay?! Where are you?!"

"I'm at the apartment," she replied. "It's... owww..."

Keiichi did some simple math in his head. "He's early," he said.

"Just help me, Keiichi," she begged painfully. "Can you... can you come pick me up and..."

"Yeah! Just stay there! I'll be right over!"

He quickly hung up and ran down the hall to Urd's room, slamming his fist on the doorframe.

"Urd! Urd! Open up!"

The goddess calmly slid the door open a few inches, offering him a look of supreme boredom and contrived indifference.

"Sayoko's in labor," he said simply.

Her expression changed immediately, and she threw open the door, marching down the hall.

"We need a car," he said, running to the phone. "I'm going to get us one. In the meantime, can you still travel through TVs?"

She thought about it for a moment before sadly shaking her head.

"Okay, then can you get to her some other way and stay with her until I can get a car there?" he asked.

The goddess nodded quickly, their argument forgotten for the time being. She rushed into the kitchen and grabbed Stringfellow before rushing out the door. Keiichi continued dialing. You didn't really need a car to get around Nekomi, so most of the people he knew never bothered to get one. Ironically, the exception was Sayoko, whose wheels were taken away by her father. But there was someone who might have something...

"Hello?"

"Sora! It's Keiichi!"

"Oh, hey Keiichi!" Sora happily returned. "Haven't heard from you in awhile. What's up?"

"Okay, I don't have time for the long version, so here's the short one," he said. "Sayoko's having a baby, and we need a car to get her to the hospital. Does the Auto Club have something?"

"Holy crap!" Sora cried. "Yeah! Meet me at the clubhouse! I'll give you a ride!"

"Thanks, Sora," he breathed in relief.

"No problem! Hurry up!"

He didn't bother saying goodbye, just hung up the phone and grabbed the Beemer's keys off the table before rushing out the door.

888

Sayoko was lying on her futon, taking deep breaths while trying to remain calm through the pain. The woman on the phone at the hospital had recommended sitting in a bath of warm water, but Sayoko didn't have a bath. She went to the public bath down the street, and she wasn't going to go there and bleed in their water.

Keiichi and Urd were coming. They'd be here soon, and then they'd take her to the hospital and everything would be all right.

She heard footsteps rushing up the stairs and breathed a sigh of relief. "It's open!" she called out before the person had even a chance to knock. The door opened, and she saw Urd rush inside.

The goddess knelt next to her and checked her over. "Bib lamp player?" she asked.

Sayoko blinked in puzzlement. "Where's Keiichi?" she asked.

Urd cupped her hand and ran it across her arm while making engine noises.

"He's getting a car?" Sayoko asked. Urd nodded. "Okay," she breathed. "Okay."

The Norn's face pinched in helplessness. She pointed to herself and then Sayoko.

Sayoko quickly shook her head. "I don't think so... just... just don't go, okay?" She reached out and snagged the other woman's hand, squeezing tightly. "It hurts, okay? It just hurts a lot."

Urd nodded and patted her hand comfortingly. She smiled for Sayoko's benefit. The woman replied by scrunching her face in pain and nearly doubling over.

888

Keiichi pulled up to the Auto Club just as Sora's Vespa zoomed into the parking area. They threw off their helmets at the same time, and Keiichi followed her to the garage doors.

"Thanks, Sora," he said quickly.

"Don't mention it, Senpai," she said with a smile as she unlocked the padlock holding the doors shut. "Here, get this one," she ordered, having him pull the right door open as she pulled the left.

Once open, Keiichi looked inside and face-faulted.

It was at one time an Army humvee, but someone (cough! Sora! cough!) had painted it pink. They had also raised it higher off the ground and put stump-jumper tires on it. It was the most atrocious looking vehicle Keiichi had ever seen.

"Get in!" Sora told him, as she climbed into the driver's seat.

"What is this thing?" he asked.

"It's for the offroad competition next week," Sora told him as she pushed the start button.

Keiichi jumped in his seat at the sound of a howling mechanical roar. "What the hell was that?!" he demanded.

Sora grinned at him as she shifted gears. "About five-point-six on the Richter Scale," she said.

888

"We gotta make a quick stop," Keiichi told Belldandy as he led her back into the Sukuya hangar. The goddess followed him into the office area and down the hall until they reached an office at the far end. Keiichi entered and went right to the desk that sat opposite the door, just under a large window overlooking the flightline.

Belldandy's eyes scanned the room from the doorway before stepping inside. Little knickknacks and mementoes lined the shelves that sat on the wall to her right. She examined a few of them, some familiar, some alien.

Her eyes came to rest on a photo of him with her sister. It was obviously a posed shot, a portrait, with Keiichi standing behind Urd with his arms wrapped around her stomach. He was smiling into the camera while her sister had turned her head to smile at him.

She tore her eyes away from the scene as Keiichi continued to root through his desk drawers, searching for something only he knew. The goddess examined the next object on the shelf and blinked in bewilderment.

A knife sat on a small black stand in a thick glass case, but it was no kitchen knife or survival tool. The blade was a good seven inches long, serrated on one side while the other appeared razor sharp. The tip was notched as if designed to deliver pain during a deathblow. It was the most malevolent thing she had ever seen, seeming to drip malice from the edge of the blade and darkening the world around it. She reached out to touch it, but held back at the last moment, feeling some awful presence start to awaken to her movement.

"What is this?" she asked quietly.

He paused and looked up, seeing the object of her attention. "A souvenir," he said quickly, returning to rummaging.

"Of what?" she asked in a haunted whisper.

"A place I once went to," he replied shiftily.

"It's... It's awful," she told him.

"I know," he sighed. "It was a gift from a friend. I keep it as a reminder."

"Of what?" she asked, thoroughly mystified.

He stopped and took a breath before quietly answering her. "That Urd is not the only one with a dark side they don't want to see."

She swallowed nervously and yanked her gaze from the weapon, turning it to a small model airplane sitting on a stand.

"Shinden san," she said with a smile as she examined the model.

Keiichi smiled as he opened the last desk drawer and started searching again. "Urd had that made for me," he told her. "As a birthday present."

Belldandy looked at the inscription at the base of the stand and found a short poem there.

_"All that lives is born to die,_

_And cherry blossoms will always blow away in the wind,_

_Every last one..."_

"Found it!" he sighed in relief, holding up a small parcel.

"She meant a lot to you, didn't she?" Belldandy asked, still staring at the model.

"She was my friend," he answered evenly. "And she helped me save Urd's life." He shook his head wearily. "I can never repay her for that."

Belldandy half-smiled. "Neesan mentioned that you've been able to commune with other airplanes."

He stiffened nervously. "Oh yeah?" he asked. "I mean yeah!" he went on. "But only on aircraft I have a hand in building. Urd and Sif seem to think working with you and the Shinden opened the door on that ability. So I've been able to speak with Akilina when I was working with her." She smiled and he went on nervously. "She's in Iraq now, helping the army there by providing close air support. She's suited to the job. Like Mischa says about our girls..." He flexed his muscles theatrically. "Russian planes are like Russian women, Morisawtoe! Beautiful, able to take many hits to face, and strong like tractor!"

"And Verushka san too, ne?" she asked with an innocent smile.

He face-faulted. "She... um... she told you about Verushka, huh?" he asked almost pitifully.

"Hai! She sounds very nice!"

He paused, unsure if she was joking or not. "Yeah, she's a real gem, that one," he said.

"Neesan also said she enjoys your company," Belldandy went on.

"Angel says a lot of stuff, doesn't she?" Keiichi asked, getting just a little irritated.

"She found it all rather amusing," Belldandy shared.

"Yeah, I know she does," Keiichi replied with a roll of her eyes. "Come on. I gotta get out there."

_Six years ago..._

Keiichi, Urd and Sora helped Sayoko through the front door of the hospital, and an alert orderly rushed a wheelchair over to them. Sayoko cried out in pain as they helped her into the chair and started wheeling her toward the elevator.

"Okay, Mom," the orderly said gently. "We're gonna get you to your room and get you all set to have that baby, all right?"

"Drugs!" Sayoko hissed between grit teeth. "I need DRUGS!"

"We'll get to that..."

"Don't patronize me you simpleton!" Sayoko screamed. "Are you a doctor?! No!? Then shut your talk-hole!"

"Kinda nice to have the old Sayoko back, huh?" Sora asked with a roll of the eyes.

A nurse met them as the elevator doors opened, putting them on the third floor.

"Okay, Mom, let's get you to your room," the nurse said, taking the wheelchair from the orderly. She turned to the rest of them, and her eyes found Keiichi. "Are you the dad?" she asked.

"Yes!" Sayoko said quickly.

Keiichi blinked in surprise. Sora smiled and gave him a pat on the back at the news. And Urd...

A look of utter darkness passed over her face. Keiichi could swear he saw lightning in her eyes, and if he was very quiet, he could hear a roll of ominous thunder roll through the room.

"Okay, come on!" the nurse ordered.

Suddenly, Keiichi got it. He pointed to Urd. "That's her sister!" he declared. "Can she come too?"

"Yeah, come on!" the nurse said quickly. Keiichi grabbed Urd's hand and dragged the somewhat unwilling goddess after the nurse.

Keiichi turned back to Sora. "Thanks, Sora!"

"Let me know how it turns out!" the girl called back with a wave. "Good luck, Sayoko san!"

Once the nurse turned her attention away from them, Urd slapped Keiichi on the back of the head and gave him a vengeful look.

"No," he whispered. "It's the rules! Only immediate family is allowed in the room!"

Comprehension passed the Norn's eyes and she nodded, offering a sheepishly apologetic look. She touched the back of his head where she had slapped him.

"Don't worry, it's okay," he said as they turned a corner. "Look, about before..."

She covered his mouth with the palm of her hand and gave him a stern look. _No... not now... not here..._

He nodded. They followed the nurse and found her already hooking Sayoko up to a blood pressure monitor.

"Okay, we're just going to check your blood pressure and make sure everything's all right," the nurse told her.

"It really hurts," Sayoko gasped.

"I know. Just concentrate on breathing, okay? The doctor will be in soon."

The nurse looked up at the machine as it beeped, signaling the end of its cycle, and frowned at what she saw. "I'll be right back, okay?" she told Sayoko. "Just try to relax."

Keiichi watched the nurse step quickly out and took her place at Sayoko's bedside.

"Hey," he said. "How you do'in?"

Sayoko swallowed painfully. "I don't know, Keiichi," she said. "It hurts, but I don't think it's supposed to feel like _this_."

The boy noticed that her breathing was a little off and smiled for her benefit. "Don't worry about it," he said. "The doctors do this every day. It's going to be fine." He didn't notice Urd step up behind him and smile down at Sayoko.

The girl bit her lip painfully. She blinked back tears. "Keiichi... I hate this..."

"I know it hurts, but..."

"No," she cut him off. "I hate being here like this." She took a halting breath and paused. "It's not supposed to be like this," she told him. "If it wasn't for you and Urd... I'd be totally alone, and I..." She turned away and blinked back tears. "I want my family here," she finished. "I want my mom..."

He swallowed and took her hand. "I know," he whispered.

They were interrupted when a knock came at the door, and a young man in a labcoat walked in, reading a clipboard. "Mishima san," he said in greeting. "I'm Doctor Yamada." He immediately reached over and turned the blood pressure machine back on.

"They already did that one," Keiichi pointed out.

"I know," Yamada replied quietly. "I just want to get another one."

"Something wrong, Sensei?" Sayoko asked.

"Your blood pressure is high," he told her. "That could just be because you're excited, so we want to see if it's coming down at all. If it is, everything's fine."

"And if it's not?" Keiichi asked.

"Then we might have to look at other options," he said.

"But the baby's okay, right?" Sayoko asked quickly.

"He's early," Yamada told her. "Very early. That's not necessarily bad, but we have to be very careful. So I need you to lie back and take deep breaths and try to relax."

Sayoko nodded, not at all reassured, and laid back in the bed. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths.

Keiichi swallowed and leaned against the far corner of the room, his mind awhirl with the events of the day, how they led up to this. He had spent a good portion of the day feeling sorry for himself about how his life turned out, and here was Sayoko, whose life really didn't turn out in any way, shape or form how she thought it would, and now...

He turned and walked out the door. Seeing him leave, Urd blinked and rushed after him. As the door shut behind her, she called out.

"Pop board case?!" she demanded.

He turned and nodded at the door. "Stay with her. I'll be back soon."

Her jaw dropped in astonishment. "Soda giraffe sneaker toys?!"

Keiichi turned and walked into the elevator, calling over his shoulder as the doors closed.

"Nergal."

888

Sora had already left, leaving Keiichi to take the train downtown where Nergal Heavy Industries kept its headquarters. While most companies preferred to base themselves in places like Osaka, Nergal, under the leadership of the legendary Kane Mishima, had chosen to come to Nekomi, bringing several thousand jobs with them and giving the economy a shot in the arm. It was Nergal's patronage that twenty years ago turned a simple, rural liberal arts college into one of the premiere institutes of technology in Japan, and the people of Nekomi never forgot it. What Mishima had lost in the way of capital and convenience by moving his company to Nekomi, he more than made up for with community support and an endless flow of bright interns and entry-level college grads who had grown up learning how wonderful the company was.

Looking up at the tower that housed the company's HQ, Keiichi could almost believe in it himself. Anyone with an interest in technology had heard of Nergal. Cyberneticists, geneticists, aerospace engineers, robotics engineers and Almighty knew how many others were drawn to the company.

Keiichi took a breath and stepped inside. The lobby looked as if it was hewn from a solid block of polished marble, with small pools of water filled with koi lining either side. Between these pools, at the end of a long corridor sat the front desk.

He smiled at the young woman with the borg-like blue-tooth earpiece sitting on the other side, and at her return smile, began.

"I'd like to speak with Kane Mishima please," he said.

The woman looked like she was trapped between wanting to politely refuse and outright laughing at him. She smiled gently. "Do you have an appointment?" she asked, the old standby for getting rid of unwanted guests.

"No," Keiichi confessed. "It's about his daughter, Sayoko."

A look of nervousness passed over the woman's eyes. "Mishima sama doesn't have a daughter," she replied as if from a script.

"Mishima sama's daughter," Keiichi bit out with quite a bit of steel, "Is in the hospital, and he needs to know about it."

The woman licked her lips as if juggling some risk in her mind. She leaned over and spoke in a hushed voice. "We're not supposed to entertain anyone claiming to know Sayoko sama," she told him. "It's a very personal matter, and I'm not privy to the details, but I'm not supposed to even bother Mishima sama with letting him know you're here."

"She's in labor," he tried again.

"I'm sorry," she said sympathetically. "He said 'no exceptions.'"

He took a breath and bit his lip. "I see," he whispered. He plastered a weak smile on his face. "I'm sorry," he told her. "You understand... I had to try."

She smiled and nodded. Keiichi turned and started toward the door, taking three steps before turning back to her. "Hey, I'm sorry to impose," he said. "But it's a long walk back to the hospital. Could I... maybe use your bathroom?"

The woman smiled politely and pointed him down the corridor behind the welcome desk. "It's the third door on the right."

"Thanks," he said in relief. He walked quickly by her... and right past the third door on the right... and into an elevator.

888

Sayoko tried to banish the pain from her mind, but the nagging suspicion that there was something truly wrong kept letting it back in like a child who keeps letting the pitbull into the house even after his mother ordered him to stop.

She squeezed the hand holding hers, and Urd squeezed back.

It wasn't just the pain that was getting to her...

"Urd," she let out in a quiet rush of breath. "Everything is going to change now. I thought I was ready, but... I'm not sure anymore..."

The Norn reached out and stroked her hair comfortingly.

"I mean... from this day on... I'm going to be 'Mommy,'" she went on. "I don't know if I'm ready for that... I guess... I mean up until this point I still had choices, and now..."

She looked up and saw Urd smile down at her. The goddess squeezed her hand again.

"I'm going to be so horrible at this," Sayoko whimpered.

Urd shook her head. She reached down and touched Sayoko's chest, just above her heart.

"I wish I had your confidence," Sayoko grumbled. "Genies are probably great parents..."

Yamada entered the room again and checked the readings on the machines again. He bit his lip and shook his head to himself. Looking down at Sayoko, he spoke gently but urgently.

"Ms. Mishima, your blood pressure hasn't gone down," he said. "Neither has the baby's. We can't risk doing this the usual way, so we're going to do a C-section. Do you know what that is?"

Sayoko swallowed fearfully and nodded.

"Okay, I'm going to have the nurse take you into another room to get you ready," he said as the nurse from before entered. "It's going to be okay."

"Okay," Sayoko squeaked.

The nurse unhooked her from the EKG and heart monitors and unlocked the wheels on the bed, wheeling Sayoko smoothly out the door. Urd made to follow, but Yamada stopped her.

"I'm sorry, Miss, you're going to have to wait here."

Urd put on her most winning and seductive smile, and rested her hand on his chest, intent on convincing him to let her follow them.

"Fart monkey donkey chair?" she asked in a silky timbre.

Yamada arched an eyebrow. "Um... there's a restroom down the hall," he said before quickly walking out.

Alone, Urd took a breath and sat down in the leather chair that had sat opposite of the bed.

It was going to be a long night.

888

Keiichi stepped out of the elevator into a long corridor lined with doors to small offices. It was obvious that the big guy had the office at the very end of the hall. There was a desk outside the door where a male assistant with another blue-tooth on his ear was working on the computer.

He bit his lip and quickly ducked into a darkened office across the hall. There had to be a way to get past him. His eyes fell on the telephone sitting on the office desk and quickly grabbed it, pulling the cord out of the wall and wrapping it around the phone. Taking a breath, he stepped into the hall and started confidently toward the secretary.

This had worked... kind of... in the movie he saw it in. It should work here... right? He would just waltz in like the wind...

"Woah!" he cried as the secretary caught sight of him. "Can you believe the wind out there tonight?! It's brutal! So, they said downstairs that the big guy's phone was out. Last time it was because a bunch of rats was chewing through the lines! It's through here, right?" he pointed the phone at the door and walked right through it before the secretary could move.

"Hey! Wait!" the secretary finally cried, rushing around the desk to come after him.

Keiichi quickly threw the door shut and locked it. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Can I help you?"

The boy suddenly remembered that he wasn't trying to duck into an empty office, and hadn't really thought of what he would do if he succeeded. Looking up, he found a middle-aged man with a shaved head and a neatly trimmed mustache staring at him from the large panoramic window that lined the whole outer wall of the office.

Keiichi had never met Sayoko's father before, but had a pretty good idea of what the guy would look like. He'd be a fat, older guy with a bald spot and an overblown idea of his own importance. Suddenly faced with the real thing, he found himself way off base. The guy looked like he could play the lead in a samurai movie. He didn't seem unnerved or even angry by his sudden appearance. Just curious.

"You're Kane Mishima san, right?" Keiichi asked quickly.

"Ah," the man replied in the affirmative. "And you are?"

The boy swallowed. "I'm Keiichi Morisato," he said.

Mishima nodded. "Most young men who come looking for jobs are content to leave a resume downstairs," he noted as he rounded his desk to have a seat. "I have to say... I admire your drive to sneak up here and past Otaru."

"Oh... um... I'm not here for a job," Keiichi explained. "Not that I wouldn't take one," he added. "I mean... your aerospace projects are incredible! Most companies are still thinking fifth gen, and you guys are already looking at seventh gen stuff!" he gushed, losing himself in the moment of meeting one of the most powerful businessmen in Japan.

"That is nice of you to say," Mishima said with a tight smile. "But if you are not here to ask for a job, then why have you come?" he asked. "Are you here to kidnap me and hold me for ransom?" He smiled in amusement.

"No!" Keiichi cried. "I'm not here to do anything illegal... you know... beyond sneaking into your office," he amended, nervously scratching the back of his head. "I'm a friend of Sayoko's."

The only sign of acknowledgement of that last statement was a slight narrowing of the eyes from Mishima.

The silence unnerved Keiichi, prompting him to speak. "Look, I know you two have your problems..."

"I have no problems with Sayoko," Mishima told him evenly. "She is no longer my responsibility."

"Yeah, and I get that," Keiichi said. "But she's in labor over at NIT University Hospital." He paused, waiting for some panicked reaction, waiting for Mishima to jump up and order the car around to pick him up, to rush to his estranged daughter's side like in the movies.

Instead, he stared at Keiichi. "And?" he asked.

"Well... she's having her baby," he reiterated, wondering if maybe his friend's dad was a little off in the head.

"I understand," Mishima told him politely. "And?"

Keiichi let out a short chuckle in disbelief. "And he's early," he stated with a touch of anger. "There's complications. She needs some family support. I thought maybe, being her father and all, you might want to know about this stuff."

Mishima took a breath and regarded the boy for a moment. "Sayoko has made her decisions, and now she must abide by them," he said. "When she decided to sleep around with nameless western businessmen, she was making a conscious decision to turn her back on her family name."

"Um," Keiichi began incredulously, "You know most young people don't think about that stuff when they get wasted," he pointed out. "She made a m..." He stopped, not wanting to label the baby she was about to have a mistake. "She didn't use the best judgement," he said diplomatically.

"Let me show you something, Morisato san," Mishima said as he rose from his chair. He led Keiichi to a glass display stand to the right of the desk. Inside, hanging from a wooden standard was a faded red flag with an artistically drawn lotus blossom.

Keiichi looked at it, realizing he was looking at something authentically ancient.

"It is the Mishima family standard," Mishima told him. "This flag flew alongside that of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's. Over the years, the meaning of what it means to be samurai has eroded, leaving only our names and reputations to stand as testament to our history. What Sayoko did was sully that name and that reputation. More than that, she sullied her own destiny."

"Her _destiny_?" Keiichi asked in a mixture of disbelief and disdain.

"Sayoko's mother and I raised her to be a noble woman in a country that becomes less noble every day," Mishima told him. "She was supposed to do great things."

"She's still doing great things," Keiichi argued. "You should see the ways she's changed. She's proud, but now she's proud because of the things she's done, not who she is or what flag her father has in his office!"

Mishima didn't get angry at his tone. "Sayoko had a responsibility to be a woman like her mother, God rest her soul," he said quietly. "NOT... a shameless tramp who spreads her legs for any gaijin with enough gin to make her forget who she is. She turned her back on her family, her future and her destiny."

Keiichi took a deep breath. "Sayoko told me about your wife," he said quietly. "So you _know_ that bad things happen to people," he went on, his voice rising as his emotions got the better of him. "You know that the things that matter, the _people_ that matter can just disappear any moment. They leave. They're taken. They die." He swallowed back tears before continuing. "And you wonder to yourself, 'why did this have to happen? What about those dreams of the future? What do I do now?'"

Mishima listened silently as Keiichi went on.

"And eventually you pick up the pieces and you move on," Keiichi told him. "And hopefully, you realize how precious the people in your life are. Yeah, life didn't go according to plan. That's _life_. And you get two options: You can try to punish life for not giving you what you want or you can consider that maybe that wasn't your destiny to begin with and start over."

He turned to the display case and nodded. "That's a real pretty flag, Mishima san," he said. "I hope it's pretty enough to replace Sayoko and your grandson."

Without another word, Keiichi turned on his heel and marched to the door, unlocking it and throwing it open. The moment the six security guards on the other side caught sight of him, they tackled him and started wailing on him.

"Let him up," Mishima's calm voice called out. The guards reluctantly backed off, letting Keiichi climb to his feet. He threw a nod in Mishima's direction and walked out, tentatively touching his fat lip as he made his way to the elevator.

888

Keiichi wasn't sure who he was more angry with; Kane Mishima or himself. As he entered the hospital through the automatic glass doors, his mind went back to the conversation he had just had with the billionaire. He realized that at some point in that conversation, he had stopped talking with Mishima and had started lecturing himself.

He stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor. He had gone there for Sayoko, to bring her father back to her, but maybe that was simply too much to hope for. Maybe, as he said, this was the way it was supposed to be.

That was a difficult thing to believe. But maybe that's just the way things were.

_And you?_ that familiar voice in his head asked. _Are you willing to set the past aside and accept things the way they are? Your heart is already conflicted._

He sighed as the doors closed.

_"How do you feel about her?"_ Sif's question came back to him. He said at the time he didn't know, and that was the truth.

And now...

The doors opened, and he caught sight of Urd standing at the end of the hallway. She was biting the end of her pinky as she paced back and forth in front of the main desk. The goddess looked up and found him. Rushing forward, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

He could sense something was wrong and hugged her tighter.

"Where's Sayoko?" he asked.

888

The woman let out a soft grunt as she turned her head, her eyes slowly parting open as the man sitting in the chair next to her bed took notice of this change and leaned forward.

"Hey," Keiichi whispered in the dimly lit hospital room. "Finally awake?"

Sayoko swallowed and offered a soft, "Mmm," in response. "Baby?" she whispered.

Keiichi smiled gently. "They got him in the neo-natal ICU," he said. "He was really underweight. They want to keep him warm."

"Is he okay?" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah," he said with certainty. "He's fine. They say he might have to stay there for a few weeks, though."

"When can I see him?" she asked.

"Tomorrow morning," he replied. He checked his watch. "About three hours." He turned his head as the sound of snoring made itself known to them. Urd, curled up in another chair on the other side of the room, snored loudly as she slept. "So, Urd and I have been talking..." he said.

"You and _Urd_ have been talking?" she asked skeptically.

"Okay, _I've_ been talking, and she's been waving her arms around," Keiichi relented with a smile. "The point is... we want you to come back to the temple." Sayoko started to tiredly protest, but he cut her off. "Come on, Sayoko," he went on. "You can't tell me that that rat trap is a better place to raise him than the temple." He smiled at her. "Come home."

Sayoko smiled and nodded weakly. "Okay," she said. "We'll come home."

"Good," he said quietly. "So... what are you going to name him? Did you decide?"

She took a few breaths, staring into his eyes in a way that suddenly made Keiichi feel as if something solemn were happening. "You name him," she said.

"Eh?!"

His shock didn't seem to faze her. "You're the closest thing in the world he'll ever have to a father," she said quietly. "The only man in my life... and his... that ever gave a damn. I want you to name him."

"Sayoko..."

"Keiichi," she said with a pleading note. "Don't make me beg."

The man took a deep breath and swallowed. "Can I name him for a friend?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Call him 'Shin,'" he said with a nod. "Shin Mishima."

"Shin Mishima," she whispered.

With that solemn moment past, Keiichi smiled. "You should try to sleep."

"I don't want to sleep," she said, obviously exhausted despite herself. "Talk to me, would you?"

He thought for a moment and nodded. "Okay," he said. He took a deep breath and sat back in his chair. "So, I'm at the dorm, taking messages for the senpais because God knows they can't shell out a few bucks for an answering machine, and I decide to order some take-out. I dial the Chinese place down the street, and this woman answers and tells me she'll be right over to grant me a wish..."

888

Sunlight was cutting through the open window when Keiichi woke up with a flash of pain. Sleeping in the chair had done nothing good for his neck, and he rubbed it while wincing silently, not wanting to wake up either of the two women in the room.

Rising to his feet, he walked to the door and slowly opened it, hoping there wouldn't be a loud creak to herald his departure. He just wanted to step out for a quick leak and maybe a trip to the vending machine for something to eat.

Once the door was closed he was free to yawn loudly, and it was a the tail end of this act that his eye caught someone standing outside the window of the NICU. He blinked, certain he was mistaken, but sure enough, he was real.

"Mishima san?" he called out quietly.

The billionaire turned and offered him a smile and a quick bow. "Morisato san," he said in greeting before turning back to the window.

Keiichi walked over and stood next to him, looking into the window at the three babies sleeping in incubators.

"Which one is my grandson?" Mishima asked him.

"The one on the far right," Keiichi told him, pointing at the wrinkled little infant in question.

"He looks a lot like Sayoko did when she was born," Mishima told him.

Keiichi let the comment linger for a moment. "What changed your mind?" he asked finally.

Mishima took a breath and considered the question for a moment. "What you said last night about my family standard was insulting," he said. "It also cut right to the heart of the matter."

"What do you mean?" Keiichi asked.

"The family does not represent the flag," Mishima told him. "The flag represents the family. You cannot have one without the other. I realized it was not Sayoko who had torn our family apart, it was me."

"Oh," Keiichi answered, a little too tired to be poignant.

"Who did you lose, Morisato san?" Mishima asked suddenly, catching the boy by surprise.

Keiichi blinked. "Lose?"

"Last night you did not speak to me as much as through me," Mishima told him with a sympathetic smile.

The younger man was silent for several moments. "A woman," he finally told him quietly. "Someone I was in love with."

Mishima nodded sagely. "And that's why you came last night," he said. It wasn't a question.

"I guess so," Keiichi replied in a whisper. "It just didn't seem right... You can't just break up a family and go on about your business... it just... it's like a big empty hole in your chest... And you try to fill it with other things, school, hobbies, friends, but... the hole is still there... And I figured if there was any way I could help Sayoko to not go through that again... I would try."

Mishima nodded again.

"Are you going to talk to Sayoko?" Keiichi asked.

"Ah," Mishima replied. "I think it's time to fill in those holes in our lives," he said quietly. He turned to Keiichi and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you, Keiichi Morisato, for taking care of her for me during my time of foolishness."

Keiichi bit his lip. "Can I ask you something?" he asked. "Something personal?"

"Ah."

"After your wife died... did you ever have feelings for anyone else?" Keiichi asked. "Did you ever... fall in love with someone else?"

Mishima coughed at the personal nature of the question but nodded. "Yes," he said. "And now you will ask me if I ever felt guilty about it."

Keiichi blinked.

"Morisato san.... Keiichi... to lose someone you love is agonizing," he said. "But men were made to seek the love of women, and women were made to give their love to men. You are a young man, a good man. There comes a time when the mourning must end, and the grief must pass, and you must live your life again." He turned to the window and smiled. "That you lost this love of your life is tragic, but look in this window. I am looking at my grandson." He smiled at that thought. "I have loved, and had a family, and now a grandchild." He turned back to Keiichi and arched an eyebrow. "Tell me, Keiichi... is this woman you loved so bitter and cruel that she would wish to deny you these things in her absence? Would she really wish for you to look back at the end of your life and have no love to show for it past the love you shared with her?"

Keiichi said nothing as he digested this.

"And if so... would that be enough for you?" Mishima asked him.

888

Belldandy looked down at her feet as they walked down the hall toward the hangar. "No," she answered the question Mishima has asked him years ago. "I would not wish that for you."

Keiichi stopped for a moment as he tried to think of what to say to her.

She didn't give him a chance to reply. "The cruelty of this whole situation, Keiichi san, is Hild's sense of timing," she said. "Had she released me twenty years from now... I don't think it would be as painful to know you moved on. And had she released me within a year or so... we would have been reunited, and..." She trailed off.

The man said nothing as she stared at her sandals.

"You decided," Belldandy said quietly. "And... try as I might, I cannot really fault you for that. There was no way for you to know she would decide to release me after all."

"If I had..."

"That's why she did it," Belldandy told him sadly. "It's just one more cruel act to visit upon us." She smiled suddenly. "But Mishima san was right, you know."

"He was?" Keiichi asked.

She nodded. "You are capable of so much love, Keiichi san," she told him, half proud, half sad. "And the thought that you would _not_ be someone's husband, someone's father... is a very sad one for me. I just wish..." She broke off and looked away.

"Uncle Keiichi!"

They turned to the source of the hail and found a young boy running in their direction, Mischa leading two others not far behind.

Keiichi grinned as he knelt down and grabbed the boy in a hug, lifting him into the air to talk to him eye-to-eye. "Hey, Squirt!" he said in greeting. "How was your trip?"

"I saw a rhino-saurus!" the boy gushed.

"A rhinoceros," a woman's voice corrected him. Belldandy turned her head and saw Sayoko Mishima was one of the people with Mischa. Her eyes had more wrinkles than she remembered, and her hair had been cut to fall just below her ears, most likely as a defense against tugging toddlers.

The woman saw her and did a double-take. "Belldandy?!"

"Sayoko san!"

"Morisato san," Kane Mishima, a little grayer than Belldandy imagined during Keiichi's story, said in greeting as he offered the man a bow.

"Mishima san," Keiichi replied, bowing as best he could with a six year old boy in his arms.

"Oh, good," Mischa grumbled. "Everyone is friend. This is good."

"It's good to see you," Belldandy told Sayoko. "Keiichi san has been telling me about the last ten years..."

"I bet," Sayoko said imperiously, turning from the goddess as if she _hadn't_ just reappeared after ten years and instead had just returned from stepping out for a smoke. Belldandy blinked in puzzlement at the dismissive tone.

Keiichi cleared his throat and turned his attention back to the boy. "Got you something," he said, pulling the small paper bag out of his pocket. "Check this out."

The boy reached into the bag and pulled out a small cloth patch. "Wow!" he said. "Is this a real fighter pilot patch?!"

"Yup," Keiichi told him. "One of the F-2 guys gave it to me in exchange for Teletha's phone number," he said, giving a wink to Sayoko.

"Cool!" He turned to Sayoko and waved the patch at her. "Look, Mom! It's a real F-2 fighter pilot patch!"

"What do we say?" Sayoko asked him sternly.

"Thank you, Uncle Keiichi," the boy obediently replied.

Keiichi smiled. "You wanna see something _really_ cool?" he asked in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Yeah!"

Keiichi cocked his head toward the hangar door. "I'm going to go show him the bird," he said. He turned to Sayoko and Belldandy, who, after their initial greetings, had remained silent. "Maybe... you two can catch up or..."

"Sure," Sayoko said with a dangerous smile. "Coffee?"

"I'd love to have coffee with you!" Belldandy replied cheerily, clasping her hands together.

Mischa grumbled. "Oh, good, good," he said. "You go off and have fun, and I will stay and have uncomfortable conversation with billionaire about why plane isn't ready."

"It'll be ready," Keiichi told him. He turned to Mishima. "She'll be ready." He turned and carried the boy down the hall.

"Well," Sayoko began with a smile. "If I recall, the break room is this way." She started down the hall without waiting for an acknowledgement from Belldandy.

The goddess obediently followed, leaving Mischa alone with Mishima.

The Russian chuckled nervously and cleared his throat. "So," he began. "You are 'Mishima,' and I am 'Mischa.' We share syllables. See? We have much in common."

"Tell me about the airplane," Mishima commanded politely and with a smile.

"Yes, of course," Mischa grumbled. "The airplane."

888

"We might have a problem," Urd said as she entered the kitchen where Sif was busily making tea.

"Oh?" Sif asked. "Beyond the obvious, I trust?"

"I just saw a demon," Urd told her, folding her arms over her chest as if daring Sif to make a sweetly sarcastic remark about that.

The blonde goddess arched an eyebrow. "Marller?"

"No," Urd said, slowly circling the table. "A demon I'd never met before. Said she knew Keiichi."

"Lots of demons know Keiichi san," Sif reassured her as she lifted the kettle off the stove. "What was her name?"

"I didn't get it," Urd told her in embarrassment. "I got a weird vibe from her, though. Like she wasn't everything she was supposed to be... It was weird."

"You think it's connected with Belldandy's release?" Sif asked.

"She said as much," Urd told her, taking a seat at the table. "Said she was here to make sure Hild's 'peace-offering' didn't put any stress on my 'situation.'"

"That's.. nice of her?" Sif asked.

"Hild doesn't work in nice," Urd growled. "Everything she does is calculated. What I don't get is why she bothered sending a strange demon I don't know. It's kind of weird."

Sif shrugged. "Perhaps she was busy elsewhere and could not come herself."

"She's afraid of what I'd do to her," Urd growled, feeling the anger rise in her again.

The blonde bit her lip. "Urd... at the risk of bringing up painful memories... I still don't believe Hild would do such a th..."

"Don't," Urd said quickly. "I don't want to think about it." She shivered and choked the memories back. "Once this week is bad enough."

Sif didn't reply. She started to pour the tea.

Urd bit her lip. "Damn! I wish I had thought to ask her name!" she cried in self-reproach. "Purple hair and red eyes..." she muttered. Her head snapped up as the sound of china clacking together cut through the room.

Sif quickly dabbed at a spot of spilt tea. "I'm sorry," she said quickly. "That was so clumsy of me."

The Norn regarded her with concern. "Are you okay, Sif?" she asked.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

"Your hands are shaking."

Sif quickly curled her hand into a fist. "Just... concerned," she said. "I don't want to see you under any more stress."

Urd arched an eyebrow. "Uh huh... Are you su..."

"Have you called Skuld chan yet?" Sif asked quickly, cutting the Norn off in mid-question. "She should be told that Belldandy is home."

"You're right," Urd relented. "I should give her a call. Frigga too."

Sif put on a warm smile. "Why don't you call your stepmother, and I'll call Skuld chan," she said.

Without waiting for an answer, Sif picked up her purse and started out the back door, humming quickly as she went. As she descended the stairs, she checked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being followed and quickly pulled out her cell phone.

She hit the number four on speed dial and waited as the phone rang, biting her lip nervously as it rang three, then four times.

"Hello," she heard Keiichi's voice said. "You've reached Keiichi Morisato's cell phone. Leave a message after the beep."

_He must have it turned off_, she thought. She left a quick message and then called his office number. Her eyes closed in frustration as she got another answering machine. She waited for the tone and then gave an identical message to the one she just left on his cell.

"Keiichi, it's Sif," she said. "Ameko is in Nekomi..."

_AUTHOR'S NOTES:_

_The poem at the base of the model Shinden was written by a tokko (kamikaze) pilot before his final mission during World War II and entrusted to a school girl in Chiran, Kyushu. It seemed appropriate._

_I occasionally write characters with actors in mind. For instance, Anteros in "Timidity" was written for Neil Patrick Harris. In this chapter, Kane Mishima was written for Ken Watanabe._


	30. Concerto

Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine.

I dedicate this chapter to axt. This Bud's for you, pal!

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 30**

**Concerto**

_You brought your brat!?_ Verushka shrieked as Keiichi opened the cockpit and helped Shin into the seat. _Huesos! S'ebis!_ _ I am not some circus attraction for the entertainment of your gue..._

"Wow! This is cool!" Shin cried as he sat down.

_Oh! You really think so!?_

Keiichi didn't reply to the jet, concentrating instead on the boy. "Okay, now whatever you do," he said. "Don't pull this lever." He tapped a yellow and black striped lever on the left side of the seat.

"What's it do?" Shin asked in awe.

"It's the ejection seat," Keiichi told him. "It'll blast your chair a few hundred feet into the air on a pair of rockets and then you'd parachute down to the ground again."

"COOL!"

_Nyet! Not 'cool!' You would ruin my nose job!_

"Your nose is fine," Keiichi muttered under his breath.

_Shut up! I hate you, remember?!_

Keiichi sighed and rolled his eyes.

_Oh, my love, that's not true! I love you! Ya budu vsegda iyubit tebya!_

"What does this do?!" Shin asked, pointing at something.

"That's the throttle."

"What's this?!"

"That's the heads up display."

"Does this fire the rockets?!"

"N... Wait.... Yeah, it does," Keiichi said. He watched Shin pull the flight stick and make machine gun noises with his mouth and grinned like a little kid himself. It was times like these, watching Shin or Sachiko play and being "Uncle Keiichi" that made him so glad Urd was willing to try to have a child again. Losing Gersemi had changed her forever, and for awhile he was certain she'd never want to try again.

But Sachiko and Shin had had the same effect on her that they had on him. And now he was going to have a son.

_A son,_ he thought. _I'm going to be a father. My God..._

It was about time.

888

The break area wasn't a room as much as it was an unused corner in the Sukuya main hangar near where the $300 million Shinden II sat when she wasn't in flight. A couple of tables and two vending machines sitting next to a table with a coffee pot on it wasn't exactly first class, but for the few employees of the Russian-owned Sukuya, it was enough.

Sayoko placed a cup of coffee in front of Belldandy as the goddess watched Keiichi and Shin at Verushka's cockpit. The smile on his face, it was the happiest she had ever seen him.

The woman followed her gaze and smiled. "He loves Keiichi," she told Belldandy. "I don't know what I would have done without him. He's going to be a wonderful father."

"Hai, I'm sure he will," Belldandy replied wistfully.

_Just not to _my_ children..._

She watched Sayoko sit down and offered her a smile. "He's a beautiful little boy, Sayoko san."

"Yeah," Sayoko responded, a break in the frost of her demeanor beginning to show. "Keiichi has been like a father to him." She shook her head. "God, I am so happy he and Urd are having a baby. It's like he was made for it."

Belldandy looked sadly down at the table top, and Sayoko regarded her carefully for a moment. "How much has he told you?"

"As it happens," Belldandy said slowly. "He was just telling me about Shin's birth when you arrived."

"Ah," Sayoko said, leaning back in her chair. "And he's been dragging his feet, ne?"

Belldandy looked up at her in puzzlement. "Why do you say that?"

Sayoko ignored the question for the moment. "How is your sister?" she asked. "We've been out of the country for the last two weeks, so I haven't been able to check on her. I know she's... worried."

"She seems to be doing well," Belldandy said.

"Good," Sayoko finished with a nod. She paused for a moment, sizing her former rival up. "You can't blame her for jumping at him, you know," she said. "If she hadn't... I would have."

Belldandy turned and blinked at her. "What?" she asked in puzzlement.

Sayoko turned to her and smiled. "I told her, point blank. I said if she didn't own up and say something to him I was going to find someone who would." She turned back to her son and Keiichi and shook her head. "I gave up on Keiichi making the first move because... well... you know how he is... But Urd really wanted him. She was just still so messed up after losing her ability to speak and the scar and... She was just in a bad place. That's why I'm glad she finally did it."

"She told him?" Belldandy asked. "But... I thought..."

"How did she do it?" Sayoko asked, giving words to her question. "Actually, I inspired her quite a bit."

_Six years ago..._

"Jeez, this place is huge!" The newly-wed Megumi Mizuno remarked as she entered the tea room at the far end of the Mishima mansion. "I got lost three times and that was just coming from the front door!"

Sayoko looked up and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I would have met you at the door but..." She shrugged, the infant nursing on her was all the explanation she needed.

"He's so cute!" Megumi cried as she stepped forward to coo at Shin. "He's bigger too!"

"Thankfully," Sayoko said with a released breath. "He was underweight for a long time, but I think he's bulking up now."

"He seems to be a very happy baby," Sif told her from her spot at the table, lowering her teacup and smiling.

"So what's the big meeting for?" Megumi asked.

Sayoko turned and nodded to the group's fourth member. Pacing back and forth in front of the window, Urd bit her lip and tapped her thighs with her hands.

Sif took another sip of tea and explained as best she could. "I'm not _completely_ sure. It's still difficult to understand her, though Keiichi san seems to have mastered it. Though when I suggested we use him to translate, she became rather agitated..."

"Oh yeah?" Megumi asked.

"Charades again, huh?" Sayoko asked with a sigh.

Urd cleared her throat, a useless gesture considering she had no intention of speaking, and began, holding up five fingers.

Megumi folded her arms over her chest and grinned. "'I want to tell him.'"

Urd looked at her in complete shock.

Megumi shrugged. "Come on, Urd," she said. "You didn't want Keiichi here, and the only people at this little meeting already know how you feel about him. What else would have you this spun up?"

Sif sipped her tea nonchalantly. "It does seem logical," she said.

"And overdue," Sayoko added.

"Okay, now lay off," Megumi said, coming to the Norn's defense. "Things kind of got sidetracked, and I'm sure she didn't want a repeat of 'monkey pirate ship...'"

Urd turned white. Megumi grinned again. "Yeah, I _know_ what you were _really _trying to say..."

The Norn grit her teeth irritably.

"Are Morisatos psychic?" Sif asked.

"No," Megumi replied. "Just really good judges of character."

Urd held her hands out, inviting opinions.

Sif went first. "As I have stated before, I will support whatever decision you make in this regard, and I do think if you're going to do it, there is little to be gained by waiting, but I am curious as to how you're going to do it. I thought you would wait until your aphasia was cured."

The other goddess bit her lip uncomfortably, her eyes saying it all.

"You don't think it's going to go away, do you?" Megumi asked sadly.

Urd shook her head.

"Well," Megumi went on. "Now that I know where Belldandy really is, I have to say... it's a tough decision. I know if I went into a coma or something and woke up six years later to find my cousin Sachiko in bed with Toshio, I'd be pretty pissed. But at the same time..." She chewed her lip. "Dammit, you two _are_ good together."

There was silence for a moment before Sayoko stepped forward, her expression determined.

"I owe you and Keiichi a great deal," Sayoko said, taking her turn. "So I'm going to give you a gift," she went on regally. "I'm going to make it easy for you."

Urd blinked, confused by what Sayoko was saying.

Sayoko took a breath and met Urd's eyes. "Keiichi _needs_ a woman in his life," she said. "He's twenty-five, and men his age start to think about the future in a much more concrete way. At this point, he's not looking for a girlfriend, he's looking for someone to share the rest of his life with. And if you _don't_ tell him, I'm going to find someone who will."

"Frisbee?!"

Sif lowered her cup and looked back and forth between the two. "What do you mean, Sayoko san?"

Sayoko smiled almost evilly. "I know women," she said. "I know rich, beautiful women... women who would jump at the chance to date a daredevil stunt pilot who crashes planes to save women he cares about. Trust me, the girls I know are _looking_ for a guy like that, someone with a little more depth than the thickness of their wallets. Eventually, he'll like _one_ of them." She turned back to Urd, who stared at her half defiant and half-horrified. "So," she began with a syrupy sweet smile. "Woman up and get it done... or I will."

Megumi bit her lip and nodded. "I'm with Sayoko. No more screwing around." She looked up at the goddess who had become her best friend. "Look, this isn't something you can do with little baby steps. If you're going to do it, then do it. If not... then let go."

Urd thought on this for several moments. She looked them all in the eye and nodded.

"Excellent," Sayoko said.

"But... how?" Megumi asked. "Do you want one of us to tell him?"

A flash of fury crossed Urd's face, stunning Sayoko and Megumi.

Sif cleared her throat and explained. "Someone already did," she said.

"Oh, yeah," Megumi winced. "But... coming directly from you would be..."

"Difficult," Sif finished. "So how?"

Urd grinned and held up a finger. She reached down her shirt and produced a piece of paper with flourish. She handed it triumphantly to Sif, who unfolded it. "But you can't write..."

She blinked at what she saw. "Notes? You wrote a song for Keiichi?"

The Norn thought for a moment and then shook her head.

"Ah," Sif said. "You wrote a song _to_ Keiichi."

Urd snapped her fingers and pointed at Sif with a smile.

"You still can't sing," Sayoko told her.

"She doesn't have to," Sif interjected as she read the notes. "This is for Midori to sing, not Urd."

"Midori?" Sayoko asked.

"Urd's violin," Sif explained. She held up the paper, her lips moving silently until she thought she had the right melody. "Da-da-da-da-da-da...da-da...da-da..."

"Do you remember when... your eyes... met mine?"

The all looked to the source of those words and found Megumi blushing.

"Do you know this song?" Sayoko asked.

"No, I've never heard it before, it's just... when I heard that tune, those words just jumped into my head," Megumi said sheepishly.

Sif blinked and turned back to Urd. "Urd... this is a powerful piece of music."

"So break out the violin and let's hear it," Sayoko encouraged.

"No!" Sif said suddenly. "You mustn't play this song for anyone but Keiichi!"

"Why?" Megumi asked.

Sif smiled. "Because all music is written with an audience in mind. Most musicians write so that their songs will reach many, but some write songs with only one person in mind, one heart to reach." She looked up at Urd and handed the song back to her. "This song is meant for Keiichi Morisato alone, and is meant to be one of the things that only the two of you share. I can feel it in my heart."

"So how are you going to do it?" Megumi asked. "I mean, 'I love you,' is compact and easy. Playing a whole song... that's kind of hard to work into a conversation."

"No," Sayoko said with a shake of her head as she placed Shin in a nearby bassinet. "This calls for a production."

"A production?" Sif asked.

"Mm hmm," Sayoko affirmed. She turned to Urd. "You have to make this special, make it about _him_. A concert for one. Sit him down with a glass of wine, then take your place in front of him and play for him. Candlelight, soft music, an elegant dress... I think that would get the point across in a decisive fashion."

888

"She looks good," Keiichi concluded with a nod as he ducked under the wing and placed his hands on the skeletal frame of the Akilina. "The subcontractors will finish up, and we should have a functioning prototype by the end of the week."

Keiichi had to admit to being excited, even if he couldn't fly it, the Aklina was shaping up to be an impressive aircraft. They had decided to choose function over form. She wasn't as pretty as say, a Brazilian Super Tucano, but she carried enough munitions and armor to win a small war all on her own and enough raw engine power to carry it all at a good clip.

Leaning on his cane nearby, Mischa nodded. "Da, da, da," he agreed. "We are behind schedule, we have to start testing as soon as possible. We check Akilina and then we start flight tests one week later."

"A week?" Keiichi asked, nearly bumping his head on a wing strut. "Um... Mischa... my license is still suspended. I can't fly her yet."

The Russian waved the protest aside. "I know, I know," he said. "I hire contractor to fly it."

The statement floored Keiichi. Not because he thought he'd test fly the Akilina, but because with the financial situation Sukuya was in, there was no way Mischa should have been able to hire a test pilot.

"Who on Earth would test fly an airplane on what you can offer?" Keiichi asked.

Someone knocked on the hangar doors, sending a loud "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" through the hangar. The two looked and found a familiar woman under a familiar hat standing there.

"G'day!" Hotaru Woodward said with a grin. "Miss me?"

888

The two goddesses walked home in near silence, figuratively speaking, of course. Sif looked at her best friend's sister as Urd stared down at the sidewalk as she walked.

"I was rather surprised," Sif told her. "I thought you couldn't write."

The Norn shrugged.

"Can you write regular words too?"

Urd shook her head and pantomimed singing.

"Just musical notes?" Sif asked. "Interesting."

The other goddess rolled her eyes.

Sif could see she was nervous, had seen it ever since she had arrived to check on them a day ago. "How is your playing?" she asked. "Have you tried playing your song yet?"

Urd bit her lip and shook her head.

"But why not?" Sif asked. "It's beautiful!"

The Norn looked up at her with nerve-racked eyes. She took a breath and looked away. Turning back a moment later, she made several signs that Sif was certain Keiichi would understand but about which she had no idea.

"How about I guess until I get it right?!" Sif asked, clapping her hands at the prospect of turning the problem into a game.

Urd sighed and waved her hand in a bid to begin.

Sif thought for a moment. "You're afraid it won't sound good?"

The Norn shook her head.

"You're afraid Keiichi san will hear you before you're ready?"

Another shake.

Sif turned the idea around. It wasn't as much a song as a statement...

"It feels weird?" the blonde guessed.

Urd snapped her fingers, and the other goddess smiled.

"I see," she said. "It's like practicing to say the words. It's just... odd to do." She thought for a moment. "What can I do to help?"

888

There were parrots everywhere.

Keiichi had never been to the Jade Parrot Bar and Grill, but it was the first place Hotaru suggested when the idea of getting lunch and catching up was floated.

Parrots everywhere.

Parrots squawking at him. Parrots asking for crackers. Parrots asking if he would buy it a drink. It was tacky beyond belief, and somehow, Hotaru loved it.

"You're a cute little galah, aren't ya, mate?" the Aussie asked a bright red parrot as she offered it a nacho dripping with artery-clogging cheese. "Cracker, mate? You wanna cracker?"

Sitting on the opposite side of the booth, Keiichi nursed a beer and waited for the pilot to offer some information.

Finally, he gave up and decided to just ask.

"So what happened?" he asked. "I thought you were going to fly airliners in Hong Kong?"

"Aye, and I did that... for awhile," she said, watching the bird eat the nacho. "You ever drive a bus, Keiichi?" she asked.

"No," he said.

"That's what it was like," she explained. "No excitement, no clench'n your gut. Just moving people from Hong Kong to Singapore, Singapore to Malaysia, Malaysia to Tokyo, Tokyo to Hong Kong... over and over again."

"So you became a test pilot?" he asked, blinking.

"Kinda," she said. "Most companies want a lot of experience or a military background."

"Which is how Mischa can afford you," Keiichi concluded.

She shrugged. "It's not like I need a lot," she said. "Your Ruskie friend is offering enough for a roof over my head and will keep me in Fosters and vegemite. Don't want or need more 'an that!"

"You got a place yet?" he asked.

"Still look'n," she replied.

An idea struck him, and he smiled. "My sister just got married, and she's looking for someone to take over the lease on her apartment," he said. "It's a good place, and cheap. Interested?"

"Too right!"

888

"You are my goddess."

Hotaru grinned at the praise launched at her the moment Megumi opened the door. "Never had a sheila tell me that... wait... there was the one time..."

"Shoot if you bail me out with this place, you've earned the title. Come on in," Megumi said. "You want a beer?"

Keiichi's head shot up like a prairie dog's. "You're still drinking?!" he asked incredulously.

Megumi gave him a dirty look as she led them inside. "Do you _really_ think I'm some kind of retard?" she asked. "I had some left over from when I found out I was pregnant."

"So you're not retarded," he said darkly. "You're just a shitty enough hostess to offer us three-month-old beer."

"Like you've never downed a skunky beer," Megumi said, rolling her eyes.

"That was different," he said defensively. "I was poor... and eighteen."

"Shit, I'll take one," Hotaru suddenly threw in.

Megumi opened her fridge and tossed the Aussie a cold one.

"So, take a look around," Megumi offered as Hotaru popped the top on the beverage. "If you like it, we'll get the ball rolling."

Hotaru gave them a quick salute and left the siblings in the kitchen to check out the apartment.

"Thank you," Megumi told him quietly. "I'm so sick of paying rent for a place I can't live in and can't sell." She shook her head. "I don't get how the landlord can think this place is haunted! I haven't seen anything like..."

She saw Keiichi turn away sheepishly.

"What the hell did you do?!" she hissed at him.

"Well," he said. "You see... the day you signed on this place, Belldandy and I found an Earth spirit hiding in your drywall. Belldandy set him free, though, and that's why everyone in Japan is deathly afraid of this place but you."

"So... where's this spirit thing now?" she asked.

"He's... around," Keiichi muttered.

He flinched as she started slapping his shoulder. "You let some strange ghost live in my house without telling me, you son of a bitch?!"

"He's fine!" Keiichi argued as he tried blocking the slaps with his hands. "Seems like a real nice guy!"

"Yeah, I can tell!" Megumi growled as she continued slapping him. "He never interrupted me in the shower, for one thing! For fuck's sake, Kei chan, do you have any idea the kind of things Toshio and I did in this apartment?!"

"OH, JESUS CHRIST!" Keiichi cried, clapping his hands over his ears. "I don't need to hear this stuff!"

She gave him one more shove and stood back, shivering in belated creepiness. "So let me see if I got this straight," she said. "There's some ghost living in my apartment with me?"

"Well... not since you moved in with Toshio..."

"UGH!"

"At least... I don't think..."

"DOUBLE UGH!" She shivered again and looked up in sudden disappointment. "Oh, shit!" she whispered. "I can't rent this place to Hotaru! There's a fucking ghost pervert in here!"

"He's not a pervert," Keiichi whispered back. "He's just an earth spirit..."

"WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN?!" she hissed back, her hands balled into fists.

"Look, it's fine," he said. "Belldandy asked him to look after you, that's all."

"God!" she whispered with another visible shudder.

"Look, I'll handle it, okay?" he offered. "I'll ask Sif to come and talk to him, maybe get him to move out..."

"He can move in with you!" Megumi hissed. "Nothing for him to see in _that_ house!"

"Oh, that's real nice," he whispered back angrily. "I'll take care of it."

"You better!" she shot back.

They stood there silently for several moments. Finally, Megumi decided to change the subject. "I talked to Urd today."

They shared a glance before reciting in unison, "So to speak."

"Anyway," Megumi went on with a released breath, "Something you should know."

"Something wrong?" he asked.

She bit her lip worriedly. "She's given up on getting her speech back," she said.

"What?!" he hissed.

"Yeah," she said with a nod. "She doesn't think it's coming back."

He let out a breath and shook his head. "Dammit," he muttered.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"Talk to her, I guess," he said quietly.

"I think that would help," Megumi told him. "You two need a good heart-to-heart."

She waited for the protest, for the denial, the "stay out of it."

Instead, to her astonishment, he nodded slowly. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Yeah, I think so."

Hotaru stepped back into the room and grinned. "I'll take it!"

888

Keiichi and Megumi stepped out of the apartment, leaving Hotaru to get acquainted with her new place while they went to the landlord's office to work out the transfer. Again free of unknowing ears, Megumi decided to continue the earlier conversation and maybe draw her brother out a little more.

"So what are you going to say to her?" Megumi asked.

"I don't know yet," he said with a shrug. Seeing what she was doing, he deflected her with his next question. "So where's Toshio this week?"

"He's playing Mercutio in Nagoya," she said.

"Wasn't he out of town last week?" he asked, a bit concerned.

"It's what he does," she said with a shrug.

"Yeah, but he's married now with a kid on the way," Keiichi noted as they turned a corner. "When's he going to get a real job?"

"He's got a real job," she argued. "He's an actor."

"Yeah, but that can't pay well," he replied. Feeling a little mean after Megumi's earlier remark about he and Urd, he couldn't help but go on. "And running around in tights with a wooden sword isn't exactly man's work, you know."

Megumi chuckled and shook her head. "Oh, wow, that's ironic."

"What do you mean?" he asked, suddenly puzzled.

"Just that it's _you_ calling the guy who actually had the balls to say something to a girl about he feels is somehow less manly," she said with a wicked grin.

"Oh, come _on_!" he retorted with a laugh. "You can't compare that stuff."

"Oh, yes I can," she said. She shook her head. "You have to admit it, Kei chan, the day he punched you out he was coming over to tell me he loved me and _you_ were there with no idea of what to do about Urd. Game, set, match, Toshio."

Keiichi felt his face heat a little at the implication. "Okay," he admitted. "I admit it. A guy who plays some of literature's greatest lovers knows how to say things like that." He paused and regarded his sister out of the corner of his eye. "So... how did he do it?" he asked. "After I left, I mean. Did he... like... read you a poem or... play a song on his lute?"

"That's so funny," she said with a shake of her head, and Keiichi knew he was about to be zinged again. "Actually, he said something so romantic, that I couldn't help but say I'd go steady with him. And you know the really weird thing?" she asked. He shook his head, and she continued. "It was more like he was talking about you and Urd than he was me and him."

"What?!" he asked.

She nodded and stopped, turning to face him. "He said that he had to say something," Megumi went on. "He _had_ to... when he woke up one morning and realized that every day he and I weren't together was a wasted day."

He was silent as her brown eyes bored into him.

"Okay, that was a good one," he relented.

She didn't let him off the hook. "You're wasting your time, Kei chan," she said seriously. "You're _wasting_ it because you won't let yourself love someone other than Belldandy. And the shitty thing is, you're _already_ in love with someone else, and you won't accept it. And _everyone_ you care about can see it. I see it. Sayoko sees it. Sif sees it. I think even Peorth saw it, and she disliked the idea more than you do."

He didn't speak, silently taking the hits his sister was dishing out.

"You _know_ she loves you," she went on. "And you _know_ you love her. For god's sake, Kei chan, this is an easy one. You can have it. All of it. Everything you want, it's _right fucking there!_ All you have to do is reach out and take it. So stop screwing around and _take it!_"

"It's not..."

"And don't say, 'it's not that easy!'" she interrupted. "Because it is. Let me ask you this. When that titan thing came pretending to be Belldandy... did you kiss her?"

"Well... no," he admitted.

"Why not?" she demanded. Keiichi was stunned into silence and didn't answer immediately. "Why not?!" she pressed. "You waited for her to come back for three years, and she finally shows up and you _didn't_ kiss her? Did you ask her to marry you? Did you do _any_ of the things I know you swore you'd do?"

"No," he said. "It..." He paused and licked his lips, looking away at the street. "It didn't feel right."

"Why not?" she asked. "Because on some level you knew it wasn't Belldandy?" she asked. "Or... because you knew it wasn't Urd?"

He looked at her and swallowed. "I'm not sure," he said.

"Don't puss out on me now," she growled. "I'm three months pregnant and have hormone issues. I am _way_ past the point where I'm willing to take your mealy-mouth shit. Answer the fucking question."

"Tell you what," he said. "I'll tell you when I figure that out." He turned and started to walk off.

888

As he stepped into the temple residence, Keiichi was struck by the silence that permeated the house. At first, he assumed Urd and Sif just weren't home, but when he entered the kitchen, he saw the blonde sitting at the table sipping a cup of tea.

"Hey," he said. "Urd out somewhere?"

Sif smiled. "She's out back, practicing."

"I don't hear anything," he said, a little confused.

"I put her in a soundproof bubble so she could rehearse in private," Sif explained.

Keiichi blinked. "Wow! Where were _you_ four months ago?" He sat down next to her, and she poured him a cup of tea. "You should have been there to hear her then," he continued. "It was... something else."

"I heard her play a little this morning," Sif told him. "She's gotten quite good in a very short amount of time. I wonder if Midori is somehow communicating with her."

"Midori?" he asked. "The violin?"

Sif nodded. "Midori is not just a violin," she explained. "She is like Ameri, a semi-sentient familiar, very much like an angel."

"So... you mean Urd has _two_ angels now?" Keiichi asked.

The blonde goddess shook her head. "No... well... not exactly. Midori was fashioned for another goddess... but she fell ill before they could be bonded. Because she was created specifically for one goddess, she could not be bonded to another, so she was set aside to languish." She smiled at Keiichi in proud satisfaction. "But even if she cannot bond with Urd, she has helped her a great deal!"

Keiichi nodded. "I know, and I've been meaning to thank you," he told her quietly. "It's really helped her." He looked up at Sif and paused a moment. "So... what happened to this other goddess?"

Sif looked disturbed by the question. "She's gone," she said simply.

"I'm sorry," Keiichi said.

"I'm just glad Midori has had the opportunity to help someone," Sif told him.

"Speaking of helping people," Keiichi began sheepishly. "I need some more help."

"Please," the goddess assured him. "It's my pleasure. What can I do?"

"Well... Megumi's transferring her apartment to my friend, Hotaru. You remember Hotaru?"

"Of course!"

"Well," he went on. "When Megumi first got the apartment, it was haunted by an earth spirit who was trapped there. Belldandy freed him, but he lives there now, and... well... Megumi found out and is kind of creeped out. She doesn't want to rent the place to Hotaru if there's going to be someone there... um... peeping..."

"I could ask the earth spirit to move on," Sif offered.

"Thanks, Sif," he sighed in relief. "I appreciate it."

"It's my pleasure, Keiichi san," she said as she rose to her feet. "I'll go immediately."

888

"If I may ask, Sayoko san," Belldandy broke in. "How do you know all of this?"

The heiress smiled and gave the question some thought. She didn't want to _just_ answer. She wanted an effect.

"Keiichi told me about it, of course," she said. Which was partly true. She had also heard a great deal of it from Urd and Megumi... okay, most of it came from Urd and Megumi, but Belldandy didn't need to know that. "We're quite close, you realize."

Belldandy smiled. "Well, that's wonderful!" she said.

"Yes, of course you'd say that," Sayoko muttered under her breath. She tried again. "We've all become a close-knit group," she explained. "I mean, I remember when Urd didn't have any girlfriends at all, and now there's me and Sif and Teletha and Megumi. She's done a wonderful job of replacing you."

She had a moment of wicked delight as she saw Belldandy's face fall.

"I see," Belldandy said. She bit her lip and decided to ask Sayoko about an inconsistency in Keiichi's story. From the way Keiichi spoke, Sayoko had lost her haughty edge, and yet here it was in full force. "Sayoko san... have I done something to upset you?"

Faced with a direct question, Sayoko took a breath, wondering if she had gone too far. Finally, she decided to just come out with it.

"Belldandy," she said, sitting back in her chair. "I never liked you."

The statement hurt the Norn's feelings, and she visibly deflated. "I see..."

"No, you really don't," Sayoko went on. "You see, when I first met you, I saw you as a challenger to my status, but a challenger who would have to _work_ at it." She folded her arms over her chest. "So whenever you showed me up, whether it was a drinking game or Miss Nekomi, a part of me could be comforted by the thought that I was beaten by someone who must have worked her ass off in order to do it. When Keiichi finally told me what you were..." She bit her lip. "I have to admit... the more I thought on it, the more I felt cheated."

Belldandy blinked at the admission.

"You see... you never beat me because you were better than me," Sayoko went on. "You beat me because it was impossible for you not to."

"I don't understand..."

"Like when you drank me under the table at that party," Sayoko explained. "It was impossible for you to lose. Or when you won Miss Nekomi. You won a beauty contest and never even had to try. You didn't have to religiously diet or take constant care of your hair and nails. You can't help but be beautiful, can't help being perfect. You can't even lie." She shook her head. "_Everyone_ is tempted to lie, Belldandy. Everyone but you."

Belldandy sat there silently as she digested this.

"You know," Sayoko went on. "The first few years we knew each other, Urd humiliated me, electrocuted me, and generally treated me like crap. But she did it _honestly_. And at the very least, I could _respect_ that."

She waited for Belldandy to acknowledge what she had said. Finally the goddess nodded to herself.

"I see," she said simply.

Sayoko felt a flash of guilt, suddenly realizing that her private grudge against the goddess wasn't the biggest issue in Belldandy's life right now, and was beginning to wish she had simply put it aside. It felt too much like kicking the woman while she was down, and Urd's sister deserved better than that no matter how she felt about the Norn personally.

"I'm sorry," she said with a deep breath. "That was cruel to say."

"It's all right," Belldandy said. "At least you're honest in your cruelty."

"What do you mean?"

The goddess looked up at her. "Everyone so far has been so... nice... to me... and yet I can't help but feel that my reappearance his inconvenienced them. That their lives would be much easier if I had simply remained sealed and not bothered them.

Sayoko bit her lip. "You presume too much," she said. "The fact that they found happiness in each other does _not_ mean they didn't want you back. It simply came down to a matter of priorities."

"Priorities?" Belldandy asked.

Sayoko arched an eyebrow at her. "_You_ may have centuries to figure out what you want in life," she pointed out. "But the rest of us get one shot at it. We have to figure it out fast, and once we do, we need to jump at it. And after three years of working that equation in his head, Keiichi finally figured it out."

_Six years ago..._

He looked up as he heard the back door open and stepped into the hall, catching sight of the Norn as she walked into the living room.

"Urd?" he called out. The Norn stopped and turned to him, offering a smile as she caught sight of the man. "Can I talk to you a minute?" he asked, beckoning her to come to his room.

She nodded and walked down the hall toward him. He re-entered his room and sat down on the futon, looking up as she poked her head into his room. He waved her forward, and she stepped inside, sitting down next to him and giving him an expectant look.

_What's up?_

He took a deep breath and began. "I talked to Megumi today," he said. "She told me something... kind of disturbing."

Urd's face went white as the prospect of yet another betrayal raised its head. He saw her swallow nervously. _O...oh?_

"She said you don't think your speech is coming back," he said quietly.

She tried to cover her sigh of relief and smiled nervously. _Oh... that..._

"Is it true?" he asked. "You really think that?"

She shrugged and tried to wave his concern aside. _Maybe... I don't know..._

He took a concerned breath and reached out, taking her hand. The Norn nearly fell over in surprise at the gesture.

"Urd," he began softly. "Do you remember when you were paralyzed?"

Her face took on a light shade of pink as the memories of that time came back. She nodded.

"I told you then," he went on, "that... if worse came to worst, that I would take care of you." He looked up and met her eyes. "And I will."

She felt her cheeks flush at the sentiment, and her eyes quickly found the ground.

"No matter what happens," Keiichi continued. "No matter where you go, you have a home here, okay? You've always been there for me, a guardian angel. I'm going to be there for you."

The goddess stared at him for several moments before seeming to recover her bravado. She waved dismissively and rolled her eyes. _Okay, Mr. Crazy Pants..._

He smiled, and the two locked eyes for a moment. She finally reached out and hugged him, and he wrapped his arms around her. He felt her squeeze tightly, telling that despite her earlier bravado, the gesture had touched her.

Keiichi squeezed, simultaneously wondering if she had always been so thin and breathing in her perfume.

When they finally parted, Urd stood up and started for the door. She gave him a last smile and disappeared. Keiichi fell back on his futon and took a few breaths.

"Damn you, Megumi," he whispered. "You really gotta be right _all_ the time?"

888

Sif knocked on the apartment door and waited patiently, smiling as the door opened and a familiar woman appeared.

"Sif!" Hotaru cried in surprise. "G'day!"

"Good afternoon, Hotaru san," Sif said with a bow. "How are you today?"

"Spiffy! I'm spiffy! You wanna come in?"

"Thank you very much," Sif replied as she stepped inside. "Keiichi san asked me to come over. He said you might have an.... um... pest."

"A pest?" Hotaru asked with a grin. "You an exterminator?"

"Oh, no! No! No!" Sif denied enthusiastically, waving her hands in front of her. "But if there is a pest, I don't want to see it hurt. I would merely take it with me."

"What are we talking here," Hotaru asked. "Snake? Roach? Can't say I'm too upset about either, as cheap as the rent is here."

"It's... a little more complicated..." Sif allowed.

"Hmm," Hotaru murmured. She turned toward the door to the kitchen. "Oi!" she cried. "You see any roaches or rats or anything?"

Sif blinked as a voice called back from the kitchen. "Oh, no. This place is impeccable!"

The goddess nearly jumped as a tall man with long white hair emerged. The earth spirit caught sight of her and stiffened in recognition. The two stared at each other for several moments.

"Sif, this here's Eddy," Hotaru said, introducing the earth spirit. "He's my new roommate."

"Your new roommate?" Sif asked quizzically.

"Too right," Hotaru said. "Spot of luck, actually. Just as Megumi and Keiichi left, Eddy here comes up to the door, saying he was just coming to look at the apartment. The two of us get to talking, and then whammo! Roommates!"

"Is that so?" Sif asked.

"Um.... yes!" the earth spirit replied nervously. "I was very lucky! Hotaru sama was willing to let me stay here..."

"Well," the goddess said. "Isn't that convenient?"

"Yes! Yes!" the earth spirit cried, on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "Quite convenient!"

"And... you're okay with this, Hotaru san?" Sif asked.

The Aussie took her by the elbow and led her aside, out of earshot. "Now, I don't want you getting the wrong idea here or anything," she whispered. "I mean, I ain't in love with the guy or anything..."

"Oh, I didn't think..."

"But it _is_ rather convenient having a bloke who looks like Bon Jovi on the premises and all," she finished with a wink. "Saves me a trip to the pub, if ya get my meaning."

Sif blinked, not quite sure what the test pilot meant.

"So... you're okay with him staying here with you?"

"Oh, too right," Hotaru said. "And don't worry, mate. I can take care of myself just fine."

The goddess looked over the other woman's shoulder at the nervous-looking spirit, who was begging with his eyes not to blow his cover. Sif wasn't particularly worried about Hotaru. After all, if Belldandy had entrusted Keiichi's sister to his care, she doubted he presented a threat to the Australian woman.

She smiled. "It seems you have an amicable accord," she said.

"Too right," Hotaru said with a wink.

888

It was the most work Keiichi Morisato had done in the last five years just getting up the ladder to the roof of the temple. At 98, it was difficult just to get up the front steps of his house, but this would probably be the last of these little get-togethers he'd ever have, so he ignored the pains in his back and legs and pulled himself up onto the roof.

Sitting down, he breathed hard as he looked out over Nekomi. The city had undergone many changes since the first time Keiichi had sat up on the roof. It was barely recognizable.

"Hey there!"

He turned and squinted through his glasses. Smiling, he struggled to his feet. "Urd!" he rasped.

"Sit down, old man," she admonished with a smile as she sat down next to him, looking as if she hadn't aged a day since the day they met. "We didn't have to do this _here_, you know," she said. "I could have gone to the house."

He coughed and cleared his throat. "We've been doing this here for sixty-eight years," he said. "We're going to do it here."

The goddess smiled. "All right," she said. "If you say so." She pulled a bottle of sake from a satchel she was carrying. "So, what's new?" she asked.

"Same o'l, same o'l," he replied as she poured him a cup. "Sachiko and Shin threw me a birthday party... I got a new pair of pants... avoided the old folk's home for another year."

She smiled and looked out over the city. "Well, everything in Heaven is the same," she said. "Sif says hi. Skuld and her husband are off saving the universe. Usual stuff." She threw back a cup and shook her head. She turned and looked at him, seeing something in his eyes she knew must be trouble. "What is it?" she asked.

He took an unsteady breath before answering. "Urd, I'm dying," he said.

"You say that every year," she retorted.

"It's different this time," he said. "Cancer, they say. Can you believe that? Ninety-eight years and I get cancer _now._ You'd think the Almighty would let me run down the clock in peace."

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"That's why I wanted to do this here," he said, gesturing out across the city. "Just one last time, you know?"

She nodded.

He shook his head wearily. "God, I was so stupid, Urd."

"Stupid about what?"

The old man looked her in the eye. "Never saying anything to you."

A look of pain crossed the Norn's features. "I understood why," she said. "You didn't feel it, and I had no right to exp..."

"But I did," he said, his voice breaking. "I did, and I didn't say anything, and..." He took a deep breath.

"Keiichi," she whispered. "It's okay." She smiled. "If you like, you can say it now."

He looked at her with tears in his eyes. "I love you, Urd," he whispered. He felt his eyelids grow heavy as the world started to leave him.

"Keiichi?" he heard Urd say.

"Keiichi?"

"KEIICHI!"

He started awake and shook his head, panting for breath as his hand curled around the blanket on his futon. A quick look at his surroundings found him in his bedroom. He must have fallen asleep after his talk with Urd.

The boy sat up and covered his eyes with his hands, taking several deep breaths. What a weird dream.

_Dream? Or vision?_

A vision of the future, one where Belldandy never came back, where he held to his promise and remained alone.

Megumi was right. It was right there, and all he had to do was say something. But at the same time, it wasn't that easy. First, he had to make a concrete decision.

_Say goodbye? To Belldandy?_

There would be no going back, no undoing it. Once the words left his mouth, it was a done deal.

God, why did this have to be so hard?

_Because if it were easy, then what could she have possibly meant to you?_

_And what if she does come back? What the hell do I say to her?_

_Goodbye._

He needed to think about this. Standing up, he walked out of his room and grabbed his helmet and keys off the table. Opening the front door, he nearly ran right into Sif.

"Oh! Sorry!" he said quickly.

"Are you going out?" she asked.

"Yeah... I need to think about some stuff," he said. "How did it go at Hotaru's?"

The goddess smiled. "You can tell Megumi san that there is no problem."

"Oh, good," he sighed in relief.

"You seem troubled, Keiichi san," she said, her smile fading. "Are you all right?"

He took a breath and met her eyes. "Sif... you're Belldandy's best friend. Can you tell me something?"

"Of course."

"If I... If she came back... and I was... with... someone else..." He bit his lip, unsure if he even wanted to continue. "... would she hate me forever?"

Sif smiled sympathetically. "Keiichi san, Belldandy could no more hate you than you could her. If the situation were reversed and you came home after being missing for three, six, twenty years... and she was with someone else... how would you feel?"

"Sad," he told her. "And jealous, I guess, of whoever she ended up with." He thought for a moment and then added, "But I don't think I could blame her."

"Keiichi san, everything that could possibly be said on this has been said," Sif told him. "The rest is up to you."

He tapped the motorcycle keys against his helmet in thought. "Thanks, Sif," he said. "I'll probably be gone for a couple of hours, okay?"

She nodded. "I'll be certain to tell Urd."

"Thanks."

Sif watched him walk down the steps and mount the Beemer. She smiled and went inside to tell Urd that she would have a couple of uninterrupted hours to prepare.

888

The sun was starting to go down, and Keiichi hit the headlight on his Beemer, throwing a bright path of light before him as he cruised down the back road.

He had been on the road for an hour, and he still hadn't thought about it. But he couldn't hide forever. He had to come to a decision.

The boy felt arms wrap around him from behind and someone breathe into his ear.

"Thinking about me?"

He nearly lost control of the bike, hitting the brakes and skidding to a stop. Throwing off the helmet, he looked behind him and saw nothing.

A high-pitched whistle reached across the road, and he turned, finding the eldest Norn standing on the far side of the street.

"Over here," she said with a smile.

Given his history, Keiichi didn't take long to work out what he was seeing. "You're not the real Urd," he said. "You're just my brain screwing with me again."

Urd shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe you slammed your Beemer into a tree, and I'm some kind of coma-fantasy," she said with a smile. "Or maybe," she began again, turning away and walking off the road, "I'm your Algonquin spirit guide, here to take you a journey through your soul." She turned and flashed him a playful grin. "You should feel lucky. Most guys get frogs or coyotes. You get a hottie like me."

He followed her, leaving his bike on the deserted road behind him. "Okay," he said gamely. "Belldandy took me to the moon. Where are you taking me?"

"Second base, I hope," Urd joked with a wink.

Keiichi actually laughed at that.

"What's so funny about that?" Urd asked, as she continued down the path.

"Nothing, really," he said. "It's just that... I missed that."

"What?" she asked, turning to him. "Second base?"

"No, your joking around," he said. "It's not really the same if I can't hear it, I guess."

"So what do you want from me?" Urd asked him seriously. She turned faced him, her hands on her hips.

"What?" he asked, confused.

She leaned forward as if speaking to a dim child. "What do you want from me?"

"I thought... you were going to tell me what to do," he said stupidly.

The Norn rolled her eyes. "As if you've _ever_ listened to me." She pointed a well-manicured finger at him. "Even when I told you about the Titan..."

"I didn't know," he said. "I should have listened."

She sat down on a fallen tree and crossed her legs. "So now you want me to tell you what to do, huh?" she asked. "Fine, answer the question. What do you want from me?"

"I don't want anything," he said.

"Then you should have no problem whatsoever," she said. "Look at me, Keiichi," she said. "Look in my eyes. And tell me what you want from me." Seeing he really didn't understand, she took pity on him and elaborated. "You want me to be your temporary girlfriend?" she asked. "Someone to pat your hand and tell you how wonderful you are until Belldandy gets back."

"No!"

"Okay," she said. "That's good. We're narrowing it down. Do you..." She searched the sky for an answer. "Do you want to fuck me?"

"What?!"

She looked down and grinned at him. "Do you... want... to fuck... me?" she enunciated.

Keiichi turned a deep shade of red as his eyes went reflexively to her legs.

"Tell you what," she said flirtingly. "We'll come back to that one. Do you want me to leave?"

"Of course not!"

"Do you want me just be your friend and keep things as they are?"

"Y..." He choked the reflexive answer back. "No," he admitted quietly.

"Ah," she said with a sly smile. "Now we're getting somewhere." She looked at him carefully. "I'll never be her," she said. "You understand that, right? I'll never be a stand-in..."

"You were never a stand-in," he whispered.

She eyed him up and down. "Prove it," she said breathlessly. "Kiss me."

Keiichi swallowed and took a step forward.

"Not me, blockhead!" she cried. "The other me! The real me!"

He froze in his tracks and turned red.

"You want to know how you really feel about me?" she asked, hopping down off the tree. "That's the way to find out."

"I don't understand," he said.

"It's simple," she said. "Kiss me. Everything you'll ever need to know will be in that one act. If you kiss me and you don't feel anything, then tell me anything you want. That you had a moment of weakness, that you were wasted, whatever you want. I'm not going to tell Belldandy. But at least you'll know."

He didn't say anything.

"But if you _do_ feel something," she went on a moment later. "Then you owe it to yourself... you owe it to _me_... to say it." She locked her eyes on his. "And you owe it to Belldandy too."

Keiichi swallowed nervously. "Kiss you, huh?"

"It's the only way you'll ever know for sure," she said. She sat back down on the tree and took a breath. "Now get out of here, Mr. Crazy Pants," she said.

"But what if..."

She was gone.

"Great," he muttered. "All I have to do now is get Urd to let me kiss her."

888

Sif poked her head into Urd's room, expecting to see the Norn preparing for her big night. Her smile drooped as she saw her friend watching TV instead.

"What are you doing?" Sif asked innocently. "I thought you'd be getting ready. Keiichi could be back soon."

Urd's face twisted in embarrassment, the universal sign of chickening out.

Sif smiled again. "Urd, it's time. There's nothing to worry about."

The other goddess got to her feet and turned away, patting the sides of her legs nervously. Sif stepped into the room and approached her.

"Urd," she said softly. "If you mean to do this, then you mustn't run now." The Norn looked to her and bit her lip as Sif continued. "One day, Urd, a long time from now, you will both look back on this night as the night everything changed for you."

Urd took a deep breath through clenched teeth.

Sif put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Urd, it's true. It might be the start of a new life for you both. Or at the very least it'll be the night you finally get this burden off your chest. It could be the beginning of a relationship, a marriage, a life together. But if you don't express yourself to him... _none_ of it will happen."

The blonde stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the Norn, hugging her tightly. "Remember," she said quietly, "Play it the way you feel it."

The Norn smiled and nodded, stepping to her closet. Sif watched her for a moment and smiled, making her way quietly out of the room.

Tonight, she thought, would be a good night to go see a movie or visit with friends...

She wondered what Novikov san was doing...

888

It was dark by the time Keiichi dismounted the Beemer and started up the stairs to the front door of the residence. It was cool, but not uncomfortably so, and the sky was clear, giving him a good view of the sky above. Maybe he should invite Urd up to the roof so they could talk. Maybe that was the best way to handle this.

He reached out to open the door, but flinched back as the door suddenly opened before his fingers could touch it. He blinked in shock at the sight that met him.

Urd stood in the doorway, dressed to the nines in a long red evening gown slit up the left thigh. Her hair was pinned up in an elaborately decorative style, and a white corsage was pinned to the right side of her chest, helping to cover her scar. He had never seen her go all out like this.

She smiled and reached out, taking his hand and leading him inside.

"Do we have guests or something?" he whispered, wondering if Urd was hosting some people in the modeling business. "Should I get my suit?"

She shook her head and lead him through the kitchen. He looked down at her hand clasped in his own. Without even thinking about it, he gave it a soft squeeze. Urd almost missed a step, but continued to lead him into the living room.

The lights in the room had been dimmed, and the furniture moved back against the wall. A single chair stood in the middle of the room with a place on the tatami made up in front of it, including an open bottle of wine and a glass.

She gestured to the place opposite of the chair, and he sat down, not quite sure that this wasn't a trap of some kind. The goddess offered him a smile and walked down the hall.

The young man fidgeted, trying to make himself comfortable. He had no idea where this was going or what Urd was doing, but so far the plan to have a heart-to-heart on the roof wasn't shaping up. He took a breath and poured a glass of wine.

She reappeared a moment later, and he looked up at her, finding Midori and her bow now in her hands.

"Urd, is..."

She put a finger to his lips and bade him to be quiet. He shut his lips and watched, mesmerized, as the goddess sat in the chair before him. Crossing her legs, she closed her eyes and brought the violin up to her shoulder.

The goddess took a breath and raised the bow to the strings...

Keiichi found himself sitting back as the goddess played a song he had never heard before but would swear was familiar. It wasn't a loud or fast song, and yet the sound of the notes leaving the strings took his breath for a moment.

He closed his eyes and let the melody wash over him. It was like a memory, something forgotten given life again, and that thought brought up the long past events in his mind that had lain dormant, sometimes for years.

The day he and Urd met in the pharmacy downtown, the Norn decked out in a pink nurse's outfit she had gotten from who-knows-where...

The first day of their contract when they woke up together in the same bedroom...

The night of their first air show, when the Norn had walked into their hotel room drunk and vulnerable, seeking comfort from him without realizing it was him...

He saw the night weeks later when the tables had turned, and she was holding him in his old dorm room as he wept bitterly over Belldandy's loss...

Standing next to the haunted petting zoo as they discussed the future...

The two of them watching Knight Rider together at the end of his first and only date with Kiyoshi Takeda...

Him lowering her paralyzed form into the bath...

Dancing together at the Undy Awards...

And he saw her falling, tears in her eyes, as her near-lifeless body fell toward the ocean. And then he saw himself swimming out to her and holding her...

_"I'll hold you as long as I can,"_ he had promised.

He let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. His eyes opened and found her, the notes of the song no longer bringing up images, but words, words in her voice...

_I love you so..._

The song ended, and Urd slowly lowered the violin, setting it on her lap. She opened moist eyes and looked at him, waiting for him to pass judgement on her musical declaration.

He rose to his feet and swallowed. The atmosphere in the room had become thick with emotion, and he could feel, on some level, that this was the crossroads for them both.

"Urd," he said quietly.

She stood up and quickly put Midori down on the chair behind her. Her hands moved as she tried to sign something, but was so frazzled she couldn't make it work. Finally, she took a deep breath and stepped toward him, locking her eyes on his.

_It's time,_ he heard in his head. _You'll never know until you do._

He raised his fingers and lightly touched her cheek. Suddenly, Urd seemed to remember who she was, not some meek schoolgirl with a crush, but Lady Urd, goddess of love extraordinaire. The goddess set her jaw, leaned in quickly and crushed her lips against his.

Suddenly inspired by her move, Keiichi wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. The goddess gasped against his lips and clutched at his back.

Keiichi closed his eyes as they kissed, not a sweet and innocent kiss, but a kiss of passion, filled with meaning and need. It was something he had never experienced before, even when he had kissed Belldandy. It was more than a gesture, it was a connection. And it was through that connection that he found his answer.

_I'm in love with this woman..._

888

Sayoko looked up at the sound of sniffling. Sitting across from her, Belldandy was dabbing at her eyes with a napkin. The mortal woman frowned.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I know it's hard to hear... them kissing..."

"It's not that," Belldandy said with a sad smile. "It's beautiful. That's why it's hard for me. It's like you said earlier... It simply wasn't possible for her to lose."

Sayoko said nothing to this. In hindsight, with the benefits of an objective eye, Urd did seem to have the edge on Belldandy in some ways, and the ways in which she didn't were negated by the middle Norn's absence.

"So... that's how it happened," Belldandy concluded, putting the napkin down. "I suppose that's it then."

"Actually," Sayoko said slowly. "Something... interesting... did happen right after that."

Belldandy blinked at her. "Interesting?"

_Six years ago..._

He felt her lips pull slowly from his and opened his eyes. Keiichi watched trembling goddess, her eyes closed, take a single step away and release a held breath.

The mortal reached out and touched her cheek, and she leaned into his hand.

"Urd," he said softly.

Her eyes didn't open. Instead, she smiled. "Keiichi..."

"Wait! What?!"

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Okay, the song Urd plays is an actual song, though it doesn't exist in the AMG universe. I consider it appropriate, however. Extra points to whoever can guess the song based on the clues provided.


	31. Melodies

Disclaimer: Don't own AMG.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 31**

**Melodies**

"Wait! What?!" Belldandy cried, unknowingly echoing Keiichi's exclamation upon hearing his name on Urd's lips. "But... I thought..."

Sayoko smiled and waited for Belldandy to come to her own conclusions. There were two obvious ones she could come up with, and Sayoko was interested in seeing which one the goddess would go for, the uplifting, optimistic route or the pessimistic, cynical route where Urd faked her aphasia.

Belldandy smiled. "I see," she said. "The power of Keiichi's love healed her." She nodded and sighed. "That sounds just like him."

The mortal woman smiled. She went the optimistic route, proving that some things never changed. "That's what Urd thought too," she said. "But it turned out to be a bunch of crap."

"What?" Belldandy asked, blinking in surprise. "But... Keiichi's kiss healed her aphasia..."

"Actually, as it turns out, that was just a coincidence..."

_Six years ago..._

Urd's eyes followed the green gem in Nyd's hand as he moved it back and forth in front of her. Standing behind the healer, Keiichi bit his pinky nail in nervous excitement. When the goddess had said his name, it had thrown one more chaotic element into an already chaotic night. When Urd realized that she had said what she meant to say, she had hugged and kissed him again, repeating his name over and over.

So far, however, it seemed to be the only word she could say deliberately.

And so, two hours later, Nyd had arrived to make a determination. Urd sat before him, still in her red dress, and excited beyond belief, not only about the possibility of finally getting her speech back, but of the moment she had shared with Keiichi.

As far as her confession went, it could not have possibly gone better, and the goddess felt warm inside just thinking about it. It had been a long time since she had kissed a man like that, and her mind and body were awhirl with the limitless possibilities it meant for them both.

But one thing at a time...

Nyd stood back and hmm'd to himself. "Say Keiichi," he ordered.

"Keiichi," Urd replied obediently.

"Say 'duck.'"

"Betamax."

"Say 'Keiichi.'"

"Keiichi."

"Say 'duck.'"

"Alligator."

"Hmmm," Nyd said.

"What do you think?" Sif asked from her spot next to Keiichi.

"It's quite odd," Nyd admitted. "From what the scan is telling me, her aphasia has not relented even slightly." He tapped his lips with his fingers as he thought. HIs eyes fell on Midori, sitting on a chair not far away. He went to the instrument and examined it. As Sif's cousin, it was a familiar piece. He went over the summary they had given him about Urd's last few months as well as the abbreviated version of what they were doing tonight before she had said the boy's name.

"How's her playing?" he asked as he lifted Midori.

"Quite good!" Sif responded proudly, clapping her hands. "She's picked up on it quite quickly."

"Hmmm," Nyd noted again. He turned to Urd, a theory forming in his mind. He offered the Norn the violin and stood back again as she took it.

"Say 'duck,'" he ordered.

She rolled her eyes. "Carwash."

"Okay," Nyd said, "Now... play a duck."

Urd blinked at him. "Soda can?"

"Pretend you're playing a song about ducks," Nyd explained. "Play the notes you would use to represent a duck."

The Norn rolled her eyes again and lifted the violin to her shoulder. She thought for a moment and then played two quick notes. It kind of reminded Keiichi of a duck's waddle, if played over and over again.

"Again," Nyd ordered.

She played the notes again.

"Again," he said, and again she played the notes. They repeated this cycle three more times, and finally Nyd held his hand up, bidding her to stop.

"Now," he said. "Say 'duck.'"

"Duck."

Sif gasped, her hands going to her mouth. Urd blinked, suddenly realizing from their expressions that she had actually said the word.

"Duck!" she cried again.

Nyd nodded. "I see," he said, turning to them with a smile.

"You cured her," Keiichi whispered in awe.

"No, if anyone is responsible for this, it's my cousin and Midori," Nyd told them. He took a breath and prepared to explain. "The problem with Urd's mind right now is that her mind can't translate what she thinks into speech, correct?"

They nodded.

"Immortal minds are not the same as mortal minds," Nyd explained to Keiichi. "As I noted before, this isn't a matter of biology, but of the mind and spirit. It would seem that Urd's subconscious mind, believing the aphasia permanent, has sought and found a way _around_ the condition by rewriting the speech centers of her mind with a new default program language."

Keiichi and Sif stared at him for several moments. "I didn't understand half that," he admitted.

"Here's what I mean," Nyd went on patiently. "Sif and Midori have spent the last what? Four months? Teaching Urd to express herself in a language other than the Heavenly Program Language gods use to communicate and that Urd is unable to translate into speech. Her mind took what she learned and used it to create a language that Urd can translate."

"That's why she could write musical notes," Sif breathed. She looked at Keiichi wide eyed. "She was able to write that song for you on paper, but she couldn't write lyrics."

Nyd nodded. "Her mind is teaching itself to think in terms of musical notes rather than words. Her brain can then translate these notes into speech, bypassing the aphasia." He looked back at Urd, who was sitting there wide-eyed at the revelation. "It's quite remarkable," he noted.

"You think in melody," Sif whispered to Urd. "Oh, Almighty in Heaven... I'm so jealous..."

"So... she's going to learn more words as she keeps playing?" Keiichi asked.

"It might not even take that much," Nyd told them. "If she can compose melodic translations for words as she needs them, it might be as simple as that."

"Let's give it a try," Keiichi said, stepping past them and kneeling in front of the Norn. He placed his hands on her shoulders. "Try to say something, something you've been playing."

Urd thought for a few moments, and bit her lip as she concentrated. Looking up into his eyes, she took a deep breath and spoke slowly.

He gasped in excitement at the words. She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to confirm that she had said something that made sense.

"I love you too," he whispered.

888

Teletha picked up the phone on her desk on the second ring.

"Moshi moshi," she greeted, her eyes still perusing the stock report on her desk.

"Tessatarosa san, it's Akio. You have to come down here and see this."

Teletha blinked at the comment. "Is something wrong?" she asked. "Is someone hurt?"

"No, Ma'am," the photographer told her. "It's Urd. You have _got_ to see this."

"I'll be right down!" Teletha cried, quickly hanging up and rushing to the door. Urd must have finally broken down, it was the only thing she could think of. Ever since her "boating accident" she had been distant and unenthusiastic about her job, shuffling through shoots like some kind of zombie. The first shoot had been the worst. The model, upon seeing the scar in the photos, nearly cried. Since then, it had been like shooting a mannequin. If it wasn't for her friendship, Teletha would have fired Urd by now.

She entered the studio and found Akio standing behind the lights, watching Simone shoot Urd.

"What's wrong?" she whispered quickly to the photographer.

Akio fanned himself jokingly. "Take a look at her," he said. "I've never seen her so hot."

"Eh?" Teletha asked, turning to watch the model, decked out in a red chemise and high heels, as she posed for Simone. The CEO watched as her friend worked the camera with a level of passion she had never seen before.

"Oh, my," Teletha murmured. "What's gotten into her?"

Akio grinned and opened his mouth to reply...

Teletha held a finger up. "That was not an invitation to reply with something measured in inches," she warned. Akio rolled his eyes.

She waited for a break in the shoot and walked up to Urd, who was opening a water bottle.

"Urd," she said. "You were fantastic!"

The goddess smiled. "Thanks!"

"And you can speak again!"

"Printer dumpling," Urd said with a shrug.

"Oh... kind of, you mean," Teletha said. She hugged her friend. "No wonder you're in a better mood! I'm so happy for you!"

Urd put her hands on her friend's shoulders and grinned.

"Something else?" she asked.

Urd's brow furrowed in concentration. "Keiichi," she said slowly. "...and... I... Peanut fire tru..." She saw the puzzled look on her friend's face and took a breath, muttering under her breath. "Da-da... da...dadada..." She tried again. "Keiichi and I... kissed..."

The businesswoman's eyes went wide and she gasped, holding her hands over her mouth. "Oh my God!" she cried. "That's wonderful!" She leapt forward and hugged her friend again. Urd hugged back tightly.

Teletha finally released her. "You know what this calls for?! A celebration! Let's go have lunch today!"

Urd smiled and nodded quickly. She pointed to the dressing room and held up five fingers.

"Okay! I'll wait!" Teletha assured her. She watched her best model walk off, and she stepped over to where Simone was downloading the pictures onto her laptop.

"Anything good?" Teletha asked gamely.

Simone smiled. "I'm not sure some of this stuff will get past the censors," she said. "She was on fire today."

"She has a booooy-frieeeend!" Teletha sang excitedly.

"That'll do it," Simone agreed with a grin. "But we got plenty for the summer catalogue. I want to put her in a swimsuit tomorrow." She scrolled through the photos. "It's almost a shame. There's a hundred shots here, and we'll use maybe three."

Teletha smiled evilly. "Do me a favor," she said quietly. "Zip up thirty or so of the best photos and email them to our young pilot friend."

Simone blinked. "What? You want them to paint it on the bottom of the plane?"

"No, no," Teletha said with a grin. "I just think he'll get a kick out of them."

888

Keiichi sat back in his cubicle and looked over the equations again. There was something wrong with the aerodynami...

The thought broke off as his Outlook chimed, and a message from Simone Devereaux popped up. He blinked. Simone was a photographer Urd worked with. Maybe Urd was in some kind of trouble. He clicked the message and brought it up in a new window.

_Monsieur Morisato, Mademoiselle Tessatarossa asked me to forward these to you. Enjoy._

_Simone_

He opened the attachment and unzipped it, his eyes going wide at the images that popped up.

"What is this?!" an accented voice boomed behind him. Keiichi cried out in startlement and half-turned to find Mischa leaning over his shoulder, looking at the pictures. "You look at pornography at work?! You forward to me, da?"

"Ack! Mischa! No, this isn't porn! It's..."

_...my girlfriend,_ his mind suddenly announced. He smiled as he thought it.

"... my girlfriend," he finished.

The Russian stared at the screen. "Your girlfriend is this vision?"

Keiichi smiled. "Yeah, she is."

"You see, Morisawtoe, this is why no one likes you."

"Hey!"

"Is that porn?! Let me see!"

Keiichi cried out again as Hotaru leaned over his other shoulder. "It's not porn!"

"Is that Urd?!" Hotaru cried. She whistled. A wicked grin spread over her face as she nudged Keiichi with her elbow. "Stalking your roommate, huh?" she asked. "You got pictures of her pinned up in your locker like some kind of sick psycho janitor working in a middle school?"

"No!" he cried defensively. "Her photographer sent them to me."

"Why they send them to you?" Mischa asked. "And why you no forward to me?"

Keiichi sighed in exasperation. "I don't know _why_ they sent them to me, and I didn't send them to you because you're a creepy old man."

"So what are _you_ going to do with them?" Hotaru asked with an arched eyebrow. "What every young bloke does, I bet. You want some tissues?"

"God! No! What the hell!?" Keiichi cried.

"You know, mate, she probably wouldn't appreciate you... you know... while looking at pictures of her..."

"He does not have to," Mischa came to his sudden defense. "This is his girlfriend, so he has no need of pictures... I, however..."

"No!" Keiichi told him with finality.

"You're root'n Urd now?!" Hotaru cried. "You little ripper! Good onya!"

"I'm not r... Wait, what's 'root'n' again?" Keiichi asked.

"It means you garden with her, da?" Mischa answered.

"Oh, excuse me," Hotaru said with a roll of her eyes. "What I meant to say was, 'you're having sexual intercourse with Urd now? You fine lad. This is a good thing.'"

"In his defense, I didn't understand either," Mischa told her.

"That's different, you're Russian," Hotaru told him.

"I do not see what that has to do with..."

"Woah, wait," Keiichi said. "Urd and I aren't..."

"Well, then I take it back, ya drongo..."

"What is 'drongo?'" Mischa asked.

Hotaru sighed. "Russians," she said with a shake of her head.

"We just... um... found out," Keiichi told them. "So we haven't... you know..."

"Rooted," Hotaru supplied helpfully.

"That means the sexing, da?"

Hotaru sighed again. "Yes, that means the sexing."

"That is your girlfriend, and you are not sexing yet?" Mischa asked Keiichi, giving him a smack on the back of the head.

"Okay," Keiichi said quickly. "We're not having this conversation, alright?" he warned them. He closed the email message. "Okay?"

Hotaru shrugged and left to find her entertainment elsewhere. Mischa stayed behind a moment.

"So," he said. "You forw..."

"No, Mischa!" Keiichi replied.

"Fine!" the Russian said, turning and leaving, his cane clacking against the linoleum as he went.

888

"Welcome home, Keiichi san," Sif greeted as he walked through the front door and put his helmet down on the table. "How was your day?"

"It was okay," he said.

"You must be getting excited," Sif said.

"Why?!" Keiichi asked suddenly. "Who did you talk to? Was it Hotaru?!"

Sif blinked. "No... I mean... you graduate your trials next month, don't you?"

"Huh? Oh!" he cried. "Yeah, graduation. Can't wait."

"How will you celebrate?" Sif asked just as Urd stepped through the front door.

Keiichi ignored the question without meaning to and turned his attention to the Norn. "Hey," he said. "How was work?"

Urd smiled as she put down her purse. "_Good_," she said. "_Good photos. Lunch with Teletha_."

She saw them grinning and sighed. "_Which_?" she asked with a sigh.

"Chicken lego Teletha," Sif supplied.

The Norn closed her eyes for a moment. "_Lunch... with... Teletha_," she got out.

"It's amazing the amount of progress you've made," Sif told her. "And it's only been two days."

Urd shrugged. Now that she knew how to get around the aphasia, it was just a matter of time. She still didn't quite understand it, but it worked, and that was all that mattered at the moment.

Well... almost all that mattered...

Her eyes caught Keiichi's, and she smiled. Two days had passed since her confession, and while she was jubilant that he felt the same way, she was hesitant to rush things. After all, the news was life-changing, and she didn't want to risk strangling their new relationship in its crib by going too far too fast. As a matter of fact, things between them seemed almost status quo.

She wasn't sure she liked that. She didn't want what happened between them to get lost in the shuffle of the aftermath of her breakthrough in her aphasia. Thinking this, she smiled at him.

_"And how was your day?"_ she asked.

He looked at her with an arched eyebrow, and she knew she had screwed up at least one of the words. She held up a finger, determined to do this without help. She went over the phrase in her mind again, imagined playing it on Midori, how she would ask that question in song...

_"How was your day?"_ she tried again. She was determined to stay positive about this, even if she had to repeat and practice time and time again. The aphasia, the inability to simply communicate with people, had made her feel so isolated it was heartbreaking. She had never felt so alone in her entire life. She now had a healthy appreciation for the simple act of speaking.

He smiled at her. "Simone sent me some photos of you today," he said. "You in a red, frilly thing..."

_"Good photos,"_ she repeated from before.

"Yeah," he said with a blush. "Very good photos..."

She grinned at his reaction, exulting in the knowledge that she could inspire both love and lust in him, though the second one they hadn't actually worked on yet. But that was coming. She wanted to take this slowly, true, but she had no intention of not exercising one of the basic privileges that came with having a lover.

"Urd, " Sif suddenly broke in with a smile. "I was wondering if you would like to play some before dinner?"

The Norn nodded happily. Playing a duet with Sif might help her unlock a few more words in her ever-growing vocabulary.

"Wonderful," Sif told her. She turned to Keiichi. "Keiichi san, would you be kind enough to check on the soup every so often for me?"

"Yeah, sure," he said.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I'll meet you outside when you're ready, Urd," Sif said, smiling as she walked out.

Keiichi watched her go, sensing, once again, a trap. He turned back to Urd just in time to catch the Norn as she launched herself at him and kissed him deeply.

His first instinct was to flinch away, more out of habit than anything else, but the goddess wrapped her arms around his back and refused to let him go. After a moment, the initial shock made way for passion and he kissed back.

They parted a moment later, and she grinned at him.

He took a few quick breaths. "Wow," he said. It was something he was starting to realize with regards to Urd in contrast to Belldandy. Belldandy was tranquil, soft, willing to let Keiichi lead... when he could bring himself to...

Urd, on the other hand, was much quicker to boil, and had no issue whatsoever with taking the lead. Perhaps it was because she was a love goddess, but he thought beneath her soft exterior was a bottled inferno, and she enjoyed pulling the cork off that bottle without warning.

_"Sif's waiting,"_ she said. _"Talk later?"_

He nodded stupidly, his lips still tingling. She squeezed his hand and turned to go. He cleared his throat, watching her hips sway as she walked out of the room. He knew he was going to have to adjust his thinking. If he was serious about being with Urd, he was going to have to match her well of passion with more of his own.

In the meantime, he needed a glass of ice water.

888

Sif smiled as the bow flew over Ameri's strings in time with Urd's playing of Midori. The duet of "Fuego" was fast-paced and required excellent timing, and so far Urd had shown no small amount of skill. It felt so wonderful to duet with someone again, to link one's melody with her own. In a way, it was almost like being in love.

Not that she would know anything about that...

She opened an eye and watched Urd play, lost in her own thoughts and feelings as she played Midori. She was so happy for them both. Sif cherished her friendship with Belldandy, but watching Keiichi and Urd languish like that had been heartrending. If they had _decided_ to not pursue a relationship, that would have been sad, but at least a conclusion would have been reached. Now, seeing them finally together, Sif no longer doubted.

The blonde did wonder if Keiichi knew what he was getting himself into. Love goddesses were notoriously hard on their lovers, often setting a pace that was difficult to match. The rewards, she had heard, were incredible... if the lover could keep up.

She smiled. No, they would be fine. Urd would take care of him, and Keiichi would take care of her. That's what love was.

Before she realized it, the last note had come and gone, and the music stopped.

"Hey, guys! That rocked! You should start a band!"

The two goddesses looked up and found Megumi walking up the back path toward them.

"Megumi san!" Sif called out.

The mortal woman huffed a little as she reached the top of the hill on which the temple sat. She was just beginning to show, and the extra weight was even now taking a toll on her.

She looked over their shoulders, searching for signs of Keiichi before turning back to Urd. "So how did it go? Did it go?"

Urd grinned and leaned against a tree, closing her eyes and sighing dramatically.

"Bitch'n," Megumi noted with a nod. "I am _so_ happy for you both. It's about time."

_"True,"_ Urd agreed.

Megumi blinked. "Did you mean to say 'true?'" she asked quickly.

"As it turns out," Sif began, "There was a breakthrough in Urd's condition at the same time."

"No way!" Megumi cried. She laughed as she hugged the Norn. "We seriously need to have a party!"

_"Definitely!"_ Urd agreed.

Megumi smiled wryly. "Not at a hundred percent, though, huh?" she asked.

Urd sighed. _"What did I say?"_ she asked.

"Spankify," Megumi replied with a grin. "But you seemed very excited about it."

The Norn sighed again and started to hum under her breath. Megumi watched, perplexed until the goddess turned her eyes to her again.

"_Definitely!"_ she tried again.

"Kick ass!" Megumi cried. "But first... I need to talk to you and Kei chan."

Urd blinked. The mortal girl looked almost embarrassed. "_Is something wrong?"_

"Come on," Megumi said. "Let's go find Kei chan, and I'll explain."

888

"Okay!" Megumi declared as she sat down at the table. "This meeting is called to order! First order of business..." She turned to Keiichi. "I'm so happy for you!" she cried in a high-pitched, 'aww, isn't that sweet!' tone.

"Um... Thanks..." Keiichi said, scratching the back of his head.

"I'll get the juicy stuff from Urd later," Megumi reassured him. "Second order of business..." She leaned closer to Keiichi and arched an eyebrow. "Did you get rid of my 'pest?'" she asked.

"Sif says it's not a problem," Keiichi assured her.

"So he's gone..."

Keiichi cleared his throat. "Sif... said there's no problem," he said nervously.

Megumi locked angry eyes on him for a moment then sighed. "Screw it," she said. "I'm too worked up about my third order of business. I need your help," she said, bringing out the puppy-dog eyes.

"Sure, what's going on?" Keiichi asked.

"Okay, remember how Toshio's family was constantly in our face about the wedding?" she asked.

"Yeah," Keiichi replied. "You said they were trying to run things without putting up any money."

"Yeah, well, apparently they decided since we eloped and cheated them on a wedding, they're giving us the honeymoon free, and they won't take no for an answer."

"My god!" Keiichi cried in horror. "That's downright _awesome_ of them!"

"Your sarcasm is noted," Megumi said dryly. "But I haven't gotten to the shitty part of the deal yet."

_"What's shitty about it?"_ Urd asked. _"You're getting a free vacation!"_

"Try again," Keiichi coached her supportively.

Urd sighed in frustration and repeated her question.

"One more time," Keiichi said as Megumi watched in awe.

The Norn looked up at the ceiling and listened for the notes in her head. Finding them, she asked one more time.

"Um... right," Megumi said, thrown off balance for the moment. "So, the plan is we're going to Paris right after graduation, right? Because if we wait longer than that, I won't be able to fly, and then after that we're having the baby. Well, we bought the tickets, we reserved the hotel, we saved for a year for this... and _they_ decide that we should go to Toshio's uncle's resort in Kyushu because it's cheaper, and that we somehow _owe_ this to them." The woman's anger was obvious as her voice rose with every word.

"Toshio's uncle owns a resort?" Keiichi asked with an arched eyebrow.

Megumi rolled her eyes. "It's a bunch of little cabins on a private beach, and they want to give us one for two weeks..."

_"Those monsters..."_ Urd noted.

The new Mizuno made a face at her. "Your sarcasm comes in loud and clear at least," she said. "The point is, this is our _one_ chance for the honeymoon of our dreams! You really think we'll be able to do this after the baby's born?! They're being such dicks about it!"

"So... what do you want from us?" Keiichi asked.

Megumi took a deep breath, about to get to the meat of the matter. "I need you... to pretend to be Toshio, and Urd to pretend to be me and go on our honeymoon in Kyushu while Toshio and I go to Paris."

Keiichi blinked. "I don't think I could fool Toshio's family," he said slowly.

Megumi looked at him as if he were an idiot. She turned to Urd. "What do you see in him?!"

Urd shrugged and smiled. _"I love his sense of humor."_

"OH MY GOD!" Megumi cried.

_"What?! What did I say?!"_ Urd replied quickly.

"You just said you love his peni..."

_"I did not!"_

"Yeah, you didn't," Megumi said with a grin. "I'm just messing with you."

Urd glared at her friend. Keiichi shook his head.

"Oh, come on! That was classic!" Megumi defended. "Whatever. Anyway, you don't have to fool the family. Toshio's uncle isn't going to be there. All you have to do is show up at the front desk, say you're Toshio Mizuno and his new bride, Megumi, and they'll set you up. If his family calls the front desk, they'll confirm that you're there, and all you have to do is not answer the phone. Win-win."

"So... you want us to commit fraud... so you can run away to France," Keiichi concluded slowly.

"No," Megumi told him. "I want you to commit fraud because you love your sister who has supported every stupid plan you've ever had and saved your girlfriend's life..."

Keiichi arched an eyebrow.

"And, for the record, I can't believe I actually have to _convince_ you to take a free vacation to Kyushu," Megumi chastised him.

_"Let's do it," _ Urd said with a nod.

"What if we get caught?" Keiichi asked.

_"Come on, Keiichi!"_ Urd said. _"A private beach, a little cabin, you and me alone..."_

"'A private midget, a little cucumber, you and George Washington alone,'" Megumi quoted with a smile. "I don't know what you two have planned exactly, but jeez..."

Urd growled and knocked her head against the tabletop.

"To my original question..." Keiichi prompted.

"Your girlfriend is a goddess!" Megumi cried, gesturing to Urd. "If you get caught, just fly away on her magic carpet!"

"That's genies," Keiichi corrected.

"So what does Urd have?" Megumi asked.

"A broom."

"Yeah, you should've stuck with magic carpet," his sister told him.

"Why don't you just tell them no and go to Paris?" Keiichi asked. "Why this elaborate ruse?"

She sighed. "Because Toshio doesn't want to alienate his family. I can kind of understand. I mean, haven't you ever passed up on something because you didn't want to hurt someone you care abo...." She saw them both staring at her and broke off. "Oh, right..."

Keiichi sighed and turned to Urd. "What do you think?"

Urd held up an empty legal envelope.

"What's this?" he asked.

_"My swimsuit fits in this,"_ she said, speaking slowly to make sure she got the words right.

"Your point is taken," Keiichi told her, blushing slightly. He turned back to Megumi. "I guess we're going to Kyushu."

888

"So how do you like that timing?" Megumi asked Urd as the Norn walked her to the front gate. She smiled at the goddess. "Not bad, huh?"

Urd blinked at her, a tad confused. _"What do you mean?"_

"Oh, I'm sorry," Megumi said sheepishly. "I guess I should have brought you into it beforehand, but I wanted to make sure you acted the right way in front of Kei chan."

The Norn turned to her. _"What did you do?"_

Megumi smiled. "Toshio's uncle doesn't own that resort," she said. "His family gave us a two week voucher for it, but they're not insisting we use it. Toshio and I talked about it, and we wanted you two to have it."

_"Megumi!"_ Urd cried with a smile. _"You tricked your own brother?!"_

"I'm going to assume by your tone that you're weirded out about me playing my brother like you play the violin," Megumi told her with a wink. "And that you didn't actually ask me where the iguana factory was. Come on, Urd," she pushed. "After everything you two have been through together, don't you think you_ deserve_ a romantic vacation alone?" She paused and smiled at the goddess. "You have always been there for him, and I told you that I owed you one for that. Just make sure the two of you have fun, okay?"

"Besides," she went on. "Kei chan is finally graduating, so he deserves a break too."

Urd nodded at that. _"I would like to give him something,"_ she said.

"Yeah, I bet you would..."

_"I meant a present..."_ Urd told her. She winked. _"... also."_

"What did you have in mind?" Megumi asked.

_"I don't know,"_ the Norn said.

"A parrot?" Megumi asked, blinking.

They looked at each other for a moment until Urd figured out that she had screwed up her last statement, and Megumi thought she was suggesting something. _"I... don't... know,"_ she enunciated.

"What's your budget like?" the younger Morisato asked.

Urd blinked. _"I don't know."_

"Huh?"

The Norn thought for several moments, not wanting to repeat herself again if she could help it. _Keiichi handles stuff like that,"_ she said.

"How much does Teletha pay you?" Megumi asked.

_"A lot, I think,"_ Urd replied. She saw the look on Megumi's face and repeated herself again.

"I guess you oughtta check," Megumi said. "Make sure you're not being swindled."

Urd nodded.

"Tell you what," Megumi said. "Let's go tomorrow. I don't have class. What do you think?"

The Norn nodded. _"Sounds good."_

888

Sif looked up at the stars as she walked down the well-lit main drag of Nekomi's tourist district. It wasn't that she felt unwelcome in the temple, far from it. But she understood that Keiichi and Urd were still trying to understand where they stood as, no longer Keiichi and Urd, but as Keiichi _and_ Urd.

They deserved some privacy, and while Sif didn't plan on leaving for Heaven again for a few days, she wanted to give them some time alone.

So she took walks, enjoying the atmosphere as happy mortals explored the nightlife of the city around them. It was no wonder Belldandy loved this place so much. She had been granting wishes all her adult life, but never got to see the happiness they brought. Here she could see the happiness brought by the small wishes that came true day-to-day.

It was while watching people like this, peering into the window of some kind of eatery, that she caught sight of a familiar face. The goddess brightened and made quickly for the entrance, stepping into the dimly lit pub and moving toward the booth in the back.

"Novikov san!" she tittered in greeting.

The Russian, a half-empty bottle sitting on the table next to a plate of greasy food, smiled.

"Ah!" he brightened. "Sif! Please! Sit with me!"

The blonde removed her jacket and sat down on the other side of the booth. "How are you this evening?" she asked.

"I am quite well," the "older" man replied. He waved a waitress down and asked for a second glass. When it arrived, he placed it in front of the blonde with a grin. "Drink with me, Sif," he said. "I insist. It is not every day I get a chance to share a drink with a beautiful young woman."

"Of course I'll drink with you!" Sif assured him, taking the glass of vodka and downing it in one swallow. Mischa's eyes went wide.

"Wooooh," he muttered. "More?"

"Please!" Sif replied, holding out her glass.

Mischa refilled it, thanking his luck. "You enjoy vodka, da?"

"Actually, this is the first time I've ever had any," Sif told him. "It's potato-ey!"

The Russian leered, offering her another. "You know drinking game?"

"Eh?"

"You drink shot, then I drink shot," Mischa said. "We drink until one of us no longer wishes to drink."

"Well, I've never played that game before," Sif told him. She smiled. "Let's try it!"

Mischa grinned. "Excellent," he said, pouring another glass.

888

" Slav'sya, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoye! Bratskikh narodov soyuz vekovoy!" Mischa sang as Sif helped him down the street.

What a charming game they had played! It took her awhile to figure out the nuances, but it seemed that with each drink you were supposed to act sillier and sillier until the other person laughed so hard they passed out. She must have overdone it, because her silliness had placed Mischa into some kind of stupor.

So she had paid his bill and found his address in his wallet. Then she began the long walk back to his apartment, the Russian engineer hanging on her shoulder.

She stopped outside a small, two-story apartment building and gently put him down next to the door.

"Please excuse me, Novikov san," she said. "But I must find your keys if I'm going to get you inside." She checked his jacket and pants pockets and found his keys. Opening his door, she picked him up again and carried him inside with the strength of a woman three times her size.

The goddess found his bedroom and dumped him on the western-style bed.

"There you go, Novikov san!" she said. "Thank you very much for a wonderful evening."

The Russian snored.

"Sleep well," she whispered, leaning over and giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek.

She made her way outside and hummed as she walked down the street.

Several hours later, Mischa opened his eyes with a groan. Bits and pieces of the night before danced in his mind, coalescing in a vague timeline of events he could barely make out.

He drank Sif under the table... yes, that was right...

Then, she came back to his apartment with him... Yes! He knew that because he distinctly remembered her feeling him up outside...

And then...

AND THEN....

He opened his eyes wide and found a golden strand of hair on the bed next to him. He sat up and, the hair clutched in his hand as he blinked the hangover out of his eyes.

"Ooooooh!" he cried in delight. He felt something on his cheek and hopped out of bed, practically running to the mirror in his bathroom. Looking closely, he found a smudge of lipstick on his left cheek.

"OOOOOOH!" he cried out. "I AM THE MAAAAAAAAAN!" he screamed.

888

Belldandy blinked across the table at Sayoko.

"Sayoko san," she began. "What was the point of that story?"

"No point really," Sayoko told her with a shrug. "But it's hilarious!"

The Norn sighed. "I see."

"Poor Mischa," Sayoko whispered to her. "He is SO hung up on her. It's kind of cute."

Belldandy thought on this for a moment. "Has he expressed these feelings to Sif san?"

Sayoko snorted. "She's completely oblivious." She smiled as she looked at the Norn out the corner of her eye. "Kinda like you."

"It's a shame," Belldandy said. "Mischa seems quite nice..."

"For a perverted old man who tried to get Sif drunk," Sayoko pointed out mirthlessly.

"I'm sure his tender feelings for Sif would prevent him from doing anything ungentlemanly," Belldandy pointed out.

"Wow, you really are _that_ naive, aren't you?" Sayoko noted.

Belldandy decided to change the subject. "I'm glad Neesan found a way to communicate until her aphasia was cured. I can't imagine what it must be like."

"She talked about it with Megumi a few times, and even to me once, but she doesn't like to remember it," Sayoko told her. "But at the same time, you're wrong about one thing."

"Oh?" Belldandy asked.

Sayoko nodded. "You see... Urd never recovered from her aphasia. It's still there."

"Eh?!"

The mortal woman nodded. "She no longer thinks the same way we do. Her every thought is a musical note that her mind translates into speech. You should hear her sing! She's so good it takes a minute to realize that she's not really _singing_... just talking in her own language."

Belldandy looked down at the table-top. "She's changed so much," she whispered.

"Yes," Sayoko said with a nod. "She has. She's mellowed a little too, you know?" She grinned wickedly. "After six years, Keiichi managed to tame her. I don't think she's electrocuted anyone in years."

The idea of someone "taming" her sister irked Belldandy but also struck her as highly unlikely. For centuries, the words, "did you hear what Urd did?!" were a common staple in Heaven's rumor mill, normally followed by tales of some outlandish thing her sister had perpetrated. Perhaps Keiichi's love or the prospect of a child had helped mellow her.

"But," Sayoko went on with a smile. "Just when you think she's turned a corner, she finds a spectacular way of getting into trouble again..."

_Six years ago..._

"I still can't believe you don't know how much you make," Megumi told Urd as the two walked down the street toward the Nekomi Credit Union. "How do you do your taxes?"

Urd shrugged, feeling a little stupid. Heaven didn't have money, and Keiichi usually handled the shopping. In her mind there was no reason for her to care about how much she had. As long as she put her debit card in the machine and it kept giving her money, she thought everything was okay. Thinking back, she remembered Belldandy telling her how confused she was about the difficulty surrounding getting a place when she first arrived. Keiichi tried explaining the concept of money to her, and it took the goddess awhile to figure out what a central part it played in mortal life.

As things stood now, according to her contract, she knew that on the first and fifteenth of every month Teletha gave her money. But she didn't actually give her money. Instead, she gave her a slip that told her she had money, a slip Urd would throw in the garbage. Then Urd would tell Keiichi that she got paid and give him the debit card Teletha had arranged through her bank.

Every so often, Keiichi would tell her, "I'm taking out two thousand yen to get groceries," or "I'm going to the store, if you want sake, I'm going to have to take out a little more." At which point, she would wave to him dismissively, not really caring. In her mind money was like water. You turn on a tap, and money comes out until you turn it off again.

Come to think of it, if they could make it so that were true, it would be much more convenient...

The tax question didn't bother Urd, really. She knew Teletha had an entire army of people whose sole job it was to protect her "human assets." One of her model's boyfriends had punched her once, giving the poor, abused woman a black eye. When the CEO found out, it was like watching Hild unleash an army of Hellriders... only instead of Hild it was a diminutive little Japanese woman... and instead of a legion of Hell's vaunted cavalry, riding upon fire-breathing skeletal steeds of dead and damned mustangs, it was twenty brief-case-wielding attorneys... it was up in the air as to which was more frightening. The end result was that the abusive boyfriend was scheduled to finally be out of debt from his settlement in July...

...3854.

Sufficed to say, Teletha made sure all her models' taxes, legal and medical issues were taken care of.

But it still made her feel like an idiot. If she really meant to stay at Keiichi's side, it meant truly adopting a mortal life, not just living in a mortal world. That meant taking charge of all the little mundane things in her life and taking responsibility when those things went bad. Since learning about Urd's uncaring attitude about her bank account, the mortal woman had told her stories about identity theft, online fraud and a host of other dangers to her money and therefore dangers to her and Keiichi's livelihood. She vowed to be more cautious in the future.

For the moment, however, she was wondering how much she actually did have. She hoped it was at least enough to get Keiichi something semi-nice for a graduation present, though she doubted it. Truthfully, she'd be relieved if she just wasn't in the red.

The two walked into the bank, which sat on the ground floor of a thirty-floor skyscraper. It was busy, but not too much so, and the two women got into line.

Megumi smiled at her. "It's great to see you're doing better," she said. "It's like you're your old self again."

Urd looked at her and blinked. "'Old self?'" she asked.

"Yeah," Megumi said quietly. "The last few months you've seemed so... sad..."

The Norn bit her lip. "It was lonely," she said. "Like I was grasshopper the outside, looking in sneaker at everyone else. The only person I could really table with mouse Keiichi."

Megumi nodded, catching enough of the goddess' pidgin to understand what she was saying. "What about writing?" she asked. "Have you tried that?"

Urd rolled her eyes. "I can write my name. I guess any toad than that, and I'll sleep to learn to paint."

Her future sister-in-law smiled at the joke as the stepped up to the next available teller. Megumi took the lead and smiled at the aging woman behind the teller's cage.

"Hi!" she said. "My friend is foreign," she said straightaway, as if bracing the woman for a story of cultural misunderstanding. "So she really doesn't understand the way banks here work. She'd like to check her account and make sure she's not overdrawn and check her balance."

"Well, we can do that," the teller said with a smile. She turned to her computer and started typing. "Name?"

"Urd Morisato," the goddess said with a smile. She remembered when she first adopted that nom de guerre. Now...

_Now, perhaps, it's only a matter of time before it's my name in fact..._

"Account number?" the teller asked.

"Oh," Urd said, suddenly thrown. "Um..." She rooted through her purse and found the checkbook Teletha had given her. She handed it to the teller, hoping it was the right thing to show her.

The teller typed in a string of numbers from the checkbook and looked at her monitor. The printer on her desk whirred to life, and she took the single piece of paper that came off it, taking out a red pen and circling a number at the bottom right-hand corner before handing it to the goddess.

"There you go," she said.

Urd looked at the number, and cringed. It was circled in red. Megumi told her red was bad...

Megumi looked over her shoulder. The younger Morisato's eyes went wide.

"HOLY CRAP, URD! YOU'RE RICH!"

"I'm rich?" she asked, thinking her friend was joking with her. "But it's red," she whispered.

"That's just a figure of speech!" Megumi hissed at her, grabbing her arm. "Jeez, Urd, you can buy a freaking _house_ with that!"

"I'm rich?" she whispered. She smiled. "_I'M RICH! I'M RICH!" she cried._

Every head in the lobby turned to her, and the teller dropped under her desk. Men in uniforms started running toward them.

"Quick," Urd hissed at her. "What did I say?!"

Megumi looked at her, her face ashen. "Um...' I have a gun.'"

888

"What are those?" Mischa asked, pointing to the bouquet Keiichi put on the break room table next to a box lunch.

"They don't have flowers in Russia?" Keiichi asked as he sat down opposite the engineer. "Or wait, let me guess..." He cleared his throat and tried to imitate the Russian's accent. "In Soviet Union, flowers pick _you_!"

"We hate this man, you realize this?" Mischa told him with narrowed eyes.

Keiichi chuckled and opened his bento as he answered Mischa's question more fully. "They're for Urd. I bought them from that old lady who sells them across the street."

"You are good boyfriend, Morysawtoe," Mischa declared. He looked from side to side for eavesdroppers and leaned in, dropping his voice to a hushed whisper. "I must tell you something."

"Oh, God," Keiichi breathed.

"Indeed, Morysawtoe!" the MiG driver said quickly. "Last night... I had one... night... stand..."

Keiichi looked down at the bento, sighed and closed it. "Won't be needing this..."

"Da! Pay attention to me! You cannot fully appreciate my conquest while stuffing your face with noodles!"

"Okay, Mischa," Keiichi sighed, leaning back in his chair with his arms folded over his chest. "Get it out of your system."

"I had one... night... stand," he repeated. "With Sif."

Keiichi bit down on his lip as hard as he could to keep from laughing, hoping to hide his disbelief, but Mischa must have seen it.

"You no believe me! But it is true!"

Keiichi took a breath. "Mischa... there's an ancient Chinese proverb first quoted by Sun Tzu that says... 'pics or it didn't happen.'"

"I do not have pics!" Mischa cried. He held a finger up imperiously. "But it _did_ happen!"

"Huh," Keiichi said deadpan. "I remain skeptical."

"It's true!" the Russian declared. "I was at the Salty Potato last night, enjoying dinner..."

"That place sucks," Keiichi noted.

"Hush! Mischa is talking!" Mischa ordered. "So... I am eating dinner, and Sif, beautiful, beautiful Sif... walks up to my table... as if she had been following me... and asks to join me."

"Uh huh," Keiichi said, waiting for the other shoe.

"So, Mischa, being gentlemen, offers to buy her a drink..."

"Uh huh..."

"She downs drink in one go, and I am impressed..."

"Uh huh..."

"So we have more drinks, and Mischa gets little tipsy..."

"Uh huh..."

"And then Sif says..." He dropped his voice to a really bad impression of a seductive Sif. "'Here, let me take you back your place.'"

Keiichi arched an eyebrow.

"So Mischa says 'Da!'" the Russian told him. "We stroll back to my apartment, and Sif is all over me, insisting that I put my arm around her..."

"That minx," Keiichi noted in a bored-sounding voice.

"Da! Da! That's what Mischa is thinking! So we get to my door, and she puts hands... down Mischa's pants!"

Keiichi took the bento still sitting on the table and threw it into the trash can nearby.

"Okay, go on," he said.

"She takes me inside and _throws_ me on the bed!" Mischa told him. "Then she kissed Mischa... and... after that, it is fuzzy..."

"Yeah, meth's a hell of a drug," Keiichi noted dryly.

"I wake up the next morning and find blonde hairs in my bed and lipstick on my face," Mischa told him. He grinned. "Mischa is Russian hero now."

"Wow," Keiichi said with a nod. "That's one... really... unbelievable story there, Mischa." The boy thought fast. "Can I give you some advice, though?"

"Da."

The younger man swallowed. "Sif... is normally very reserved, you know?" he told the Russian. "I'm sure that... whatever happened... between you two was very special to her, but I also think she probably meant it as something that the two of you share alone, you know? So... she probably wouldn't want it to spread all over town..."

Mischa held his hands up. "I understand! You are right, of course! Mischa is a perfect gentleman! He will keep it under his hat."

"Well," Keiichi sighed. "This lunch hour has been... frightening," he said. "I wonder what could top that?"

At that moment, Hotaru poked her head in to the hangar. "Oi! Jinx! Megumi just called! She and Urd are in jail for trying to rob a bank!"

Keiichi took a deep breath. "Yeah... that'll do it...."

888

Megumi yawned, her hands behind her head, acting as a pillow between her and the concrete wall as she sat on the holding cell bench. She had called Keiichi's office for Urd and then called Toshio. Her new husband had hit the roof, not in anger, but in absolute terror. He said he knew what happened to pretty girls in prison...

She asked him what kind of prison movies he'd been watching....

Then he got real quiet and said he'd be right down.

On her left, Urd was talking in hushed tones to a Yakuza woman sitting next to her. The woman rolled up her sleeve, showing Urd an ornate tattoo of a dragon wrapped around the stem of a rose. Urd pointed to the right side of her chest, and the Yakuza woman nodded and lowered the neckline of her shirt, showing off another tattoo.

Megumi's brow furrowed. "Urd," she hissed. "Are you asking her for _tattoo advice?!_"

Urd smiled sheepishly as she turned back to her friend. "I've been thinking about rhino something over my scar," she said, self-consciously looking down at the spot. "And remote of her tattoos are amazing!"

"They're permanent," Megumi warned her.

"So are scars," Urd returned. She sighed. "What did Keiichi say?"

"I don't know," Megumi told her. "I talked to Hotaru. She said she'd tell Keiichi and call Teletha for you."

Urd frowned.

"What's wrong?" Megumi asked. "You know..._ aside_ from being in jail for accidentally sticking up a bank?"

"He's going speaker be pissed," Urd told her.

"Nah, he'll be fine."

"Belldandy wouldn't be arrested for robbing a bank," Urd pointed out.

"You're not Belldandy," Megumi reminded her.

Urd shook her head and bit her lip. "I don't tissue thinking marker way," she said. "But Keiichi wished for a goddess _like_ Belldandy. When I first check over his wish, I wasn't that concerned about it, I thought coaster was only temporary. But now..." She took a breath. "I love him, but sometimes I wonder if Freya was right. She thought another goddess could do it better."

"Keiichi doesn't think that," Megumi told her softly.

"How can he not?" Urd asked.

"Because you're his girlfriend," Megumi replied with finality.

The steel reinforced door leading to the main office opened, and they heard a familiar voice speaking to some poor police sergeant.

"That poor woman has a medical condition that makes it difficult for her to communicate!" Teletha was shrieking. "So you mistreat her, accuse her of having a weapon, and arrest her!? It's because she's a westerner! ISN'T IT?! Sic 'em, Takamoto san! Sic 'em!"

A nasally male voice spoke up at this prompt. "With her medical condition and the lack of evidence, if Morisato san and her companion are not released immediately, we will sue you... we will sue the department... we will sue the city of Nekomi... we will sue the mayor..."

Before they could hear any more, Toshio rushed through the door, followed by a guard.

"Megumi chan!" he cried, rushing up to the bars. "Are you okay?! Did they hurt you!? Do you need a counselor?" He paused uncomfortably. "Did they use the hose?"

"Jeez, Toshio!" Megumi cried. "It's only been three hours!" She stood up and walked up to the bars, taking his hands in hers.

"People change in prison, Megumi chan," the actor told her. "It makes them... different..."

"Um... yeah," Megumi agreed hesitantly. "I'm real hard now... I'm not sure I can live on the outside anymore... You know... I'm all institutionalized 'n shit."

Urd grinned, but looked down at the floor a moment later as Keiichi walked in. She stood up and walked to the bars so she could explain.

Before she could get a word out, he reached through the bars and hugged her.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah," she answered breathlessly.

He stepped back and rested his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry, Teletha's working on getting you out."

"... the school system that educated you... we will sue the pediatricians who somehow missed your obvious mental retardation..." Teletha's lawyer continued.

Urd cleared her throat. "I'm sorry," she said. "I newspaper I screwed up, huh?"

"Don't worry about that," he said. "Let's just get you out of here."

Teletha, smiling as if it were just another day, walked in and pointed at Megumi and Urd.

"Let them out at once!" she ordered in a queenly manner.

The guard looked at his boss, who sighed and rolled his eyes, but gave him the nod. He unlocked the holding cell, and Urd and Megumi stepped out.

Urd sighed at her boss. "So... falcon many women-in-prison movie jokes are waiting for me at the office?"

"Actually, most of the office is singing 'Urd has got a gun,'" Teletha told her. "But this did give me an idea for a new line of prison-themed lingerie!" she gushed. "Black and white striped teddies and stockings! Jump-suit orange chemises! And handcuffs, Urd! Handcuffs! While Takamoto san was yelling at that nice young man, I was on my blackberry arranging to buy ten thousand pairs of police surplus handcuffs!"

"I think I should take Megumi chan home so she can begin to recover from this ordeal," Toshio told them.

"For God's sake, Toshio," Megumi muttered. "It's Nekomi PD, not a Turkish prison..."

Keiichi watched, grinning as his brother-in-law led his sister out the door. He turned and gave Urd an amused shake of his head.

"What am I going to do with you?" he asked with a grin.

Urd quickly tried to throw him off. "Well... once Teletha's new prototypes come out, you can put me under house arrest and show me the error of my ways."

Keiichi turned a deep shade of red, shocked speechless.

"See?!" Teletha cried. "People already love it! You! With the tattoos and the dangerous yet trampy appearance! Have you ever considered modeling!?"

Urd bit her lip and sighed, suddenly realizing her tactic was the wrong one. "I'll make this up to you," she promised quietly.

Keiichi swallowed as the color started to leave his cheeks. "Nothing to make up," he said. "You've helped me out of worse."

"Can we go home?" Urd asked.

"Come on," he replied with a smile, wrapping an arm around her as they walked out of the holding area.

888

"So what were you doing at the bank, anyway?" Keiichi asked as they walked down the steps of the police station and toward the parked Beemer.

"Oh, that," Urd replied, the whole reason they were at the bank temporarily forgotten. "I wanted to see how panda I had in my account."

Keiichi mounted the bike, and Urd climbed on behind him, resting her hands on his shoulders while he put his helmet on. "So you walked in, yelled 'I have a gun' and..."

She slapped his shoulder. "I didn't mean to say that!" she chastised him.

He grinned. "Yeah, but it's still funny." He put the key in the ignition and paused. "Wait... they send you a bank statement every month, right?"

Urd blinked at him.

"I mean... we got one yesterday..."

Urd let out a frustrated breath. "Just take me home," she ordered.

He grinned and turned the key. The Beemer sputtered but didn't turn over. He tried again.

"Bike okay?" Urd asked.

"Yeah," he said, turning the key again. "She's just been acting up lately." The Beemer choked to life, and they started down the street together.

888

"Welcome home!" Sif greeted them when they walked through the door. "How was your day?"

"I got arrested for robbing a bank," Urd told her as she walked by.

"It's not nice to rob banks, Urd," Sif pointed out.

Urd sighed. "You're right, Sif," she said. "Starting tomorrow, no more robbing banks, okay?"

"Splendid!" Sif told her. She looked around and blinked. "What happened to Keiichi san?"

The Norn looked around. "He was turtle behind me," she said.

The man in question appeared at the door a moment later. "Forgot something in the Beemer's lock compartment," he said. He smiled and held up the flowers he bought earlier.

"Awww!" Sif cried. "You bought her flowers!"

"Bail me out of jail _and_ flowers?" Urd asked, taking the bouquet. "Purse purple my birthday?" She smelled the flowers, inhaling deeply.

Keiichi smiled at the expression on her face. It was a happy look, but.. it was hard to describe... it was like a gentle, peaceful happiness.

"I'm going to put these in water," Urd said, turning and starting for the kitchen.

"That was sweet, Keiichi san," Sif told him with a smile.

"I'm trying to do this right," he said quietly. "I don't want to compare Urd to Belldandy, but I can compare what I did then to what I should do now. I can't recall a time when I just brought flowers home for Belldandy. Looking back, that makes me feel like a jerk. It's not going to be that way this time." He looked over at Sif and frowned. "Does that sound stupid?"

Sif smiled. "The desire to improve one's actions for the ones they love can't really be faulted, Keiichi san," she said quietly. "I don't know if not bringing Belldandy flowers necessarily makes you a jerk... but wanting to bring them home for Urd surely can't make you one either."

He smiled. "Maybe." He arched an eyebrow and took a breath. "So.... Mischa tells me you like Russian food."

"Well, I do like kupaty!" she shared.

"Kupaty?" he asked.

"It's a big Russian sausage," she explained.

He stood there, frozen to the spot. Finally he let out a breath and started for the bath. "No," he muttered. "Too easy."

"Dinner will be ready soon!" Sif called after him.

888

"You keep looking at the clock," Sif pointed out as she sipped her tea.

"I know," Urd sighed. "I should find something more productive to do with my time. Make a potion or something."

"How about a sedative?" Sif suggested gamely.

"Har har," Urd replied.

Despite her earlier comment, it was Sif who checked her watch.

"I thought I was supposed to be the nervous one," Urd pointed out.

"I'm just wondering what's keeping Skuld," Sif lied. "I thought she'd be down here quickly.

Urd shrugged. "She's got a life now," she said. "She can't just drop everything and run down here."

"She seemed very excited, though," Sif pointed out.

The Norn shrugged again. "Trust me, she'll be here," she said. "Probably had to tell her new boyfriend..."

"Skuld has a boyfriend?" Sif asked excitedly. "That's wonderful! Who is he?!"

"I don't know," Urd confessed. "We're on better terms but it's not like we talk a lot."

As if talking about her summoned her, there was a splash in the bath and the sound of footsteps approaching the kitchen. The two goddesses looked up as a tall brunette poked her head into the kitchen.

"Is she here?" Skuld asked with a grin.

"No, she went to see Keiichi," Sif told her, rising to her feet to hug the younger goddess.

"Good!" the young woman said as she hugged Sif. "I want to surprise her!"

"Hi, Skuld," Urd said, getting her turn at a hug.

"Hey!" Skuld returned. "And how are _you_?" she asked Urd's abdomen with a grin. She smiled at Urd. "You know what it is yet?"

"I knew the moment I conceived," Urd told her. "It's a boy."

"Wow," Skuld said with a shake of her head. "A guy with Keiichi's squishiness and your mischievousness.... doesn't that cancel out?"

Urd rolled her eyes. "You want a beer or something?"

"Sure!" Skuld accepting, taking a seat at the table. "So how do you want to work this?" she asked. "I vote I hide in a closet with Texas Murder and wait for her to come back."

"She's... absorbing a lot," Sif told her with a wince. "Best to be nice to her."

"Oh... right," the raven-haired woman said. "I keep forgetting. It's old news for us, but I guess she's pretty torn up, huh?"

"Yeah," Urd said sadly, placing the beer can in front of her. "How's life?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Urd tells me you have a new boyfriend," Sif added.

Skuld grabbed Sif's hands and squeezed. "I met him during my summer internship! His name is Himeros! He's a love god!"

"He's a LUST god," Urd corrected. "I've heard of this little punk."

Skuld rolled her eyes. "It's the same thing," she argued.

"It is _not_ the same thing," Urd fired back. "You know the old saying about how young guys only think about one thing? Lust gods are the reason that's true!"

"Lots of people misunderstand Himeros," Skuld allowed.

"If by 'misunderstand' you mean 'have daughters he's knocked up,' then yes, I agree," Urd said. "_Lots_ of people misunderstand Himeros."

"I'm not having this conversation with you," Skuld told her with an air of finality. "It's a happy day, and I'm not going to ruin it by fighting with you over Himeros. It's not my fault if you can't realize how deep he is."

Urd rubbed her temples. Maybe Belldandy would be able to talk some sense into her. She took a sip of tea as Sif took over the conversation.

"You're almost done with school, aren't you?" Sif asked her. "Next is apprenticeship. Now that Belldandy is back will you apply to apprentice under her?"

Skuld rolled her eyes. "They changed the rules so you can't apprentice under a family member," she told them. "Gay."

"You know," Urd spoke up. "Sif is qualified to train an apprentice..."

Sif clapped her hands at this idea. "I would be honored to if that's what you would like!"

"Um... actually," Skuld began nervously. "I already have a trainer."

"Oh yeah?" Urd asked. "Anyone we know?" She took a sip of tea.

Skuld winced, but timed her reply for a perfect spit-take anyway.

"Peorth."

Her timing was spot on.


	32. Slow Ride

Disclaimer: Yeah, don't own it.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 32**

**Slow Ride**

Sora Hasegawa ran her hands over the fork of the motorcycle, her eyes searching through her coke-bottle glasses for imperfections, cracks or dents. She frowned and nodded. It was the last part of her inspection, and it seemed like this part was just like the others.

She stood up and wiped her hands on a shop towel.

Leaning against the shed's door nearby, Keiichi held out a coke to her. "So what's the verdict?" he asked.

Sora took the beverage and looked like she didn't want to answer. "Come on, Keiichi," she said with a shake of her head. "You've always been better at this than I am. You know what I'm going to say."

"Tell me anyway," he said. "I want the second opinion."

She sighed and took a quick drink, gathering her thoughts. "She's old," she began. "Ridden hard and put away wet." She shook her head. "Her electrical system's been fried, it looks like she's been disassembled and put back together a bunch of times, the struts have been bent, and if I didn't know better, I'd swear she's been in a few explosions!"

_Thanks, Skuld,_ Keiichi thought.

"It's just gonna get worse," Sora told him sadly.

"What do you think it would take to fix her?" Keiichi asked, his eyes going to his beloved Beemer.

"A lot," Sora confessed. "I'm not talking about swapping out a transmission, Keiichi. It's in her bones. Warped struts, metal fatigue... If you replaced every damaged part you'd have enough for three quarters of a bike."

He sighed. The Beemer had been acting funny for a few weeks. At first he thought it was just because she was old, but it was the number of problems that were cropping up. When he finally did a full inspection, he found everything that Sora had listed.

"You can probably baby her along for another thousand miles," Sora told him. "But when she goes down, she's going to go down hard. The only question then is, are you at a stop sign..."

"...or doing sixty on the freeway?" Keiichi finished bitterly. "Great... wonderful...." He bit his lip. "SHIT!"

"What are you going to do?" Sora asked.

"I don't know," Keiichi muttered. "Fix her, I guess."

"It's going to be hard," she told him. "They stopped making this model in 1988. Parts are going to be a bitch to find." She looked at the sad expression on his face. "You might want to think about taking her apart and selling the parts online. Probably make enough to buy a Honda Civic.

"I'm not driving a Civic," he bit out, honestly insulted.

Sora smiled sheepishly. "But I'll help you any way I can."

"Thanks, Sora," he said.

888

Sif found her friend in the backyard, angrily tapping her foot on the ground. She blinked at the sight. For the past two weeks, Urd had been on Cloud Nine. Between kissing Keiichi and beginning a true recovery from her aphasia, things seemed to finally be going well. So well, in fact, Sif was planning on ending her visit when the two went to Kyushu in two weeks.

"Urd?" she asked tentatively. "What's the matter?"

She heard Urd growl.

Sif winced sympathetically. "Did Keiichi do something?" she asked.

"No," Urd growled. "Keiichi didn't do anything."

"Then what has you so... um... wrathful?"

The Norn turned to her, her eyes alight with frustrated anger. "I've been trying all morning, working it out in my head for days, and I still can't do it!"

"Do what?"

Urd sighed. She took a deep breath and held her hand up over her head.

"ANGEL COME FORTH!"

Sif waited for World of Elegance to burst from her host's soul, but nothing happened. She blinked. "I don't understand," Sif said. "You said the words, she should appear."

"Yeah, that part I know," Urd said. She sighed. "I can't summon her. I don't know why. Maybe... I don't know! Maybe she's not hearing it! Or maybe she doesn't hear the translation! Or... I don't know!"

"Okay! Okay!" Sif said quickly, stepping forward and embracing the other goddess. "Don't panic. We'll figure it out, okay?"

Urd took a breath. "Okay," she said. "It's just that... I couldn't summon her for the longest time... and now... I'm afraid that..."

Sif smiled gently. "I'm quite sure World of Elegance wants to come out. We just have to figure out the new magic words."

888

When Urd finally appeared in the house again, she found Keiichi sitting at the table, nursing a beer. The action puzzled her. Keiichi drank occasionally, but almost always socially. This was something new, and it had the added benefit of making her focus on something other than her inability to summon her angel, so in a way she welcomed it.

She sat down across from him and watched him for several moments. He finally seemed to realize she was there and looked up.

"What?" he asked.

The Norn smiled at him. "Nothing," she said. "Just watching you."

She was rewarded with the hint of a smile. "Creepy," he noted.

"Perhaps," she purred quietly. "I don't like seeing you unhappy. You get to kiss me, remember? That means by definition, you should be deliriously happy all the time."

"Guess I'll have to try harder," he said.

"You'd better," she replied. "So what is it?"

He frowned. "The Beemer's done."

"Done?"

Keiichi sighed. "It was an old bike when Keima first got it for me," he explained. "Getting zapped and blown up and rearranged so many times has finally taken its toll, I guess. I asked Sora to take a look too, I guess I was hoping I was just being paranoid, but she said the same thing. She's got about a thousand miles left in her, and then..." He shrugged.

"Oh, jeez," Urd said softly. She knew what the bike meant to Keiichi. "I'm sorry. What are you going to do? Try to fix it?"

"I could buy a new bike for what it would cost to fix her," Keiichi said. "And even then she'd still be an old bike, just as prone to breaking down."

"You didn't answer my question," Urd pointed out.

He sighed. "I was sixteen when I got that bike," he told her. "Keima brought me out to the garage and whipped this dusty old tarp off of it like he was unveiling a magic trick at a David Copperfield show." He smiled. "And under that tarp was the ugliest, rustiest, most broke-down bike I had ever seen." He saw Urd's puzzled expression and explained. "Keima always thought if you wanted to ride, you had to earn your wheels."

"Didn't believe in the easy route, huh?" she asked.

"No," Keiichi told her. "I worked on it every weekend until one day, she actually turned over." He sat back and took a pull from his beer. "A lot of memories riding on that bike," he said.

"Yeah," Urd sighed. "I guess there are." She smiled, inspired by something she once heard from another goddess. "But you know what, Keiichi? Memories are like the train. There's always another one coming."

"Maybe," he allowed.

Before Urd could comfort him further, Sif walked into the room. "Good news, Urd!" she said. "I talked to my cousin, and he believes your problem may lie with your new program language!"

"Wait," Keiichi interrupted, suddenly interested. "What problem?"

Urd sighed and briefly explained hitting the wall in her recovery.

"So what does Nyd think?" Keiichi asked.

Sif smiled and sat down next to them. "He's not sure, but that it could be a metalinguistical issue. He said he's going to ask an expert to come down and work with you."

"An expert?" Urd asked. "Like a shrink?"

"I... I don't know," Sif admitted. "An expert expert, I suppose...."

Urd groaned. "Great..."

She felt Keiichi's hand take hers and looked up to find him smiling at her. "Hey," he said. "If he can help you bring out Elegance, then what's the harm?"

The goddess sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Okay, Sif, when's this expert suppose to arrive?"

"This afternoon sometime," Sif told her.

888

"It's a shame," Belldandy said. "He loved that motorcycle."

"You know, I didn't realize it then," Sayoko told her. "But it's so like him."

"Hey!"

They looked up and found Keiichi carrying Shin toward them. "Little guy's getting hungry," he announced, hefting the boy.

Sayoko smiled. "Okay, Honey. We'll go get lunch soon."

Keiichi put down the boy, who hugged his mother's legs.

"What are you guys talking about?" Keiichi asked.

"You'll have to take over," Sayoko told him. "I was telling her about the week before graduation."

"Ooooooh," Keiichi replied. He stepped over to the vending machine and put several coins into the slot. "I have never seen Urd like that."

"Why?" Belldandy asked. "Because she couldn't call her angel?"

"Because of who they sent," Keiichi corrected.

_Six years ago..._

"It's almost dinner time," Urd complained. "Where's this 'expert?'"

From where he sat on the steps Keiichi watched her stalk on the back porch like a caged tigress and tried to lighten the mood. "Maybe he heard you were a notorious bank robber, got scared and changed his mind."

He suddenly found Urd leaning over him, her shadow dropping the temperature around him by two degrees. "Okay," she said, "This thing you're doing right now, this sarcastic stuff... not sexy."

"Sorry," he said with what he hoped was a disarming smile.

A smile slowly fought its way onto her face and she sat down next to him with a sigh. "I miss her," she admitted.

"So do I," Keiichi told her.

"You can't even understand her," Urd pointed out.

"Well, there was the time when you were down and out with those blue pimples," he reminded her. "We talked a bit. She's like you to the n'th degree."

"That's how it's supposed to be," Urd said with a shrug.

"Yeah, but at the same time she seemed much more... comfortable... with herself."

Urd turned to him, her eyes wide. "And I'm not?" she asked.

Keiichi shrugged, wondering if he'd wandered into territory better left alone. "Urd... Angel... You do this thing where... you want everyone in the room to notice you're there... but you don't want them to notice that it's _you_." He lifted his soda and took a pull from the can.

"And what does that mean?" she demanded softly, her tone brooking no argument.

He smiled. "It means that you don't show your real self to people unless you really care about them." Urd arched an eyebrow at this. "Let me put it this way," he went on. "I didn't fall in love with the pushy woman in the nurse's outfit I met six years ago. I fell in love with the woman on the inside."

Feeling off balance by her new boyfriend's analysis of her personality, Urd went on offense.

"You have a silver tongue, Keiichi Morisato," she announced. "I'm looking forward to finding out if you can do more with it than talk."

Keiichi choked on the soda he was swallowing and started to cough while the goddess grinned at him.

She walked her fingers along his shoulder as he recovered. "Speaking of that," she began. "How long do you intend to remain a virgin?"

"Look at that," he said suddenly, looking out at the courtyard.

"No changing the subject," she chastised him.

"No, seriously, look at that tree." He pointed at a plum tree nearby.

"It's just a tree," she said, taking his chin in her hand. "Blowing in the wind."

"Urd... there's no wind," he told her.

She blinked and looked out at the tree, at the blossoms that were now falling to the ground.

And suddenly he was there, leaning against the tree, his fingers dancing over the strings of a harp. He looked up, his eyes finding Urd, and he grinned.

Urd's smile fell and became a grimace.

"You've got to be bookcase kidding me," she growled.

Keiichi's eyebrow twitched. "Troubadour?" he asked.

The plum tree spirit smiled and trotted toward them. "When I heard that darling Urd was stricken with..."

He broke off as his face impacted Urd's fist. It's not like she punched him, really. She just balled her hand into a fist and stuck it out in front of him. In his excitement, he ran right into it.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

The elfin musician rubbed his tender nose and winced. "I was asked by the healers to come here and counsel you on your condition, my love," he announced, smiling nervously.

The Norn's eyes went wide. "Since when are _you_ an expert on anything besides making women hate you!?" she demanded.

Troubadour seemed miffed by the accusation. "Urd... love... darling... Dr. Nyd told me that you're having issues with melody, and no matter how we left things, you must admit that I am an expert on that."

Urd seethed, mostly because she had to admit he was right. Sif was good at playing the viola, but Troubadour had mastered music as a whole. Where the blonde goddess could play it, Troubadour could understand it on a level she had never seen in any musician. It was his greatest strength and his only virtue.

"So, of course I came here to help you work through your issues," Troubadour told her with a smile. He reached out and took her hands in his. "How could I not?"

Urd pulled her hands away and smiled sweetly at him as she stepped to her left, behind Keiichi, and draped her arms over him, squeezing gently.

"Troubadour, you remember Keiichi sama, don't you?" she asked breathlessly, her voice adopting a much more seductive timbre.

"Uh.... uh oh," Keiichi muttered.

The musician's eyes went wide, and he grit his teeth. "Yes," he bit out. "Of course. He's Belldandy's boyfriend, as I remember..."

The Norn giggled girlishly and rested her chin on Keiichi's shoulder. "Actually, there's been a few changes," she noted with an evil grin.

"Maybe this isn't something we should discuss right now," Keiichi forwarded.

"You see," Urd went on, nuzzling Keiichi's cheek. "Keiichi sama and I are... quite close..." She punctuated this by closing her eyes and nibbling the mortal's earlobe.

"I don't think we sh...." Keiichi began, but suddenly stopped. "Oh... jeez.. that's... Oh my god..."

He saw Troubadour shaking with rage and shook himself out of the feelings Urd was inspiring in him.

"No!" he said quickly. "I mean... Yes! But..." He quickly changed the subject. "Can you really help Urd?" he demanded.

The plum tree spirit folded his arms over his chest. "I can," he said imperiously. "I can teach her to release the music within her! To play the strings of her heart! To toggle the warble bar of..."

"Shut up!" Urd cried. "God!" She paused and shook her head. "No deal. Go back to Heaven and tell Nyd to send someone I can actually stand..."

"Wait," Keiichi interrupted. He turned to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "If he can help you..."

"I don't _want_ his help," she bit out angrily.

"You want to see Elegance again, right?" Keiichi asked. "That's what you _want_, isn't it?"

"Yes," she hissed, frustrated that her boyfriend seemed to be taking Troubadour's side.

He turned to Troubadour. "And you're actually going to _help_ her, right?" he demanded. "Not screw with her... or try to get another few drops of tears from her or anything?"

The musician looked sheepish for a moment. "I only want to help," he said quietly. "After what transpired last time... I owe you that much," he said, his eyes locked on Urd.

"Okay," Keiichi said. "Then why not give it a try?" he asked. He saw Urd about to protest and cut her off. "If he's being a pain in the ass, we can always send him away, right?"

Urd shut her mouth and took a deep, bitter breath. "Fine," she ground out from between clenched teeth.

He turned back to Troubadour. "Sound good?"

The musician struggled to smile at his newfound rival. "Wonderful."

"Great," Keiichi said. "I'm going to go inside and get a room set up for you. So you two can get started." He turned and went inside.

"You left me for that?" Troubadour asked Urd once Keiichi was out of earshot.

"No," Urd hissed. "_You_ left _me_ for a bird, remember?"

"Hmmph," he sniffed. "Not much to him."

Urd bristled. "He's the bigger man," she told him, her eyes narrowing.

"Why? Because he's willing to let me work with you?" He snorted. "As if he could stop me...."

"No, Troubadour," Urd said with a grin. "He's the bigger man because he's bigger than you." She turned and smiled sweetly. "By a good three inches." With that, Urd skipped off to parts unknown, leaving Troubadour standing there, white as a sheet.

888

Keiichi tightened the crescent wrench on the nut with one hand and braced, turning the screw with the socket wrench in his other hand. He strained as he tried to loosen the nut, the screw it was attached to had warped slightly (how that happened, he had no idea but between Skuld and Marller, it could be anything), but if he could get it off, he could remove the carburetor and...

There was a loud PING! and the mortal suddenly found himself on his butt, two halves of the screw lying on the floor of the shed below the Beemer. The metal of the screw had fatigued so much that a little pressure had...

He put the wrench down slowly and sat up, staring at the bike. How many more connections were fatigued like that? A thousand miles? He couldn't trust this bike to make it down the street knowing this, and he sure as hell couldn't ride it with Urd on the back. His skin was one thing, risking hers was entirely different. He sighed.

"Hey."

He looked up and saw Urd looking in on him, poking her head into the work area.

"Hey," he returned quietly. "I thought you'd be working with Troubadour."

She shrugged as she stepped inside. "I'm not ready for that yet," she said. "I'll start tomorrow. What are you doing?"

He was silent for several moments and finally replied. "I don't know," he said quietly. "I thought I'd get started on fixing up the Beemer, but... I don't know."

She arched an eyebrow and sat down next to him. "What's wrong?"

"The smart thing to do," he said slowly. "Would be to do what Sora said. Break her down, sell her for scrap, but..." He shook his head.

Urd smiled and looked down at the floor. Keiichi always had a soft spot for tossed out things. It was one of the things that had attracted Belldandy to him. He gave new life to old things. But she knew there came a time when that had to stop.

But there was more to it this time. She could see it in his eyes.

Keiichi stood up and sat on the Beemer, resting his hands on the handlebars as if he was reliving an old drive.

"This is about the Shinden," she said quietly.

"It has nothing to do with the Shinden," he said, shaking his head.

"Not directly, no," Urd told him. "But she opened your eyes to something. The fact that she had a soul... and so you think the Beemer might as well. That it has feelings, that it doesn't want you to give up on her."

Keiichi tapped the handlebars in thought. "Maybe," he whispered.

"You don't have to give her up," Urd told him.

"No," he sighed. "I can throw a tarp over her and leave her in here, but then she really would be like the Shinden. Sitting in the dark, wishing she could fly. I don't want to do that. She needs a purpose."

Urd rose to her feet and swung a leg over the motorcycle, sitting in the seat in front of him, looking him in the eye. "Then give her a new one," she said.

"A new purpose?" Keiichi asked. "She's dangerous to ride. And that's what she was made for."

"Think of the Shinden," Urd told him softly. "She was designed and built for one thing, to shoot down other airplanes. You and Hotaru and the Aeronautics Club gave her a new purpose. She was supposed to kill. Instead, how many lives did she save... including mine?"

Keiichi said nothing to this.

"I know in my heart, Keiichi, that there is good the Beemer can do... even if you can't ride her."

The mortal blinked, and Urd could practically see inspiration strike him.

"You're a genius," he breathed.

"Well, of c..." She broke off as he kissed her suddenly. A moment later, he hopped off the bike.

"I gotta call Sora," he said quickly.

"Sora?" Urd asked. "Why? What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to donate the Beemer to the Auto Club," he said, pausing at the door.

Urd blinked. "But... you just said they can't ride her..."

"No," he agreed. "But they can use her to teach. Who knows? Maybe she'll get someone into riding and fixing up motorcycles the same way she did for me."

The goddess smiled. "That sounds like a wonderful idea."

"Thanks, Angel," he said with a smile before slipping out the door.

Urd smiled, happy that she was able to help him. She turned around on the Beemer's seat and held the handlebars. It was a shame, really. She liked riding behind Keiichi. Now they were stuck taking the train.

The hint of an idea tickled her brain, and she smiled. She patted the bike's handlebars affectionately.

"Never doubt that he loves you," she whispered to the bike. "Ever."

888

She found him standing under a plum tree that was shedding its blossoms so quickly that it looked as if the musician were standing in a snowstorm. He strummed his fingers along the strings of his harp, humming along with the song he was playing.

Urd hefted Midori and sighed in resignation. It was time to get this over with. She walked up to him and called out.

"Hey."

Troubadour smiled but didn't open his eyes. "So... are you ready then?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," she replied quickly. "Let's get to it."

"Wonderful," he said. "First, play something for me. I want an idea of your level of skill."

Urd took a breath and raised the violin to her shoulder, not enjoying the act as much as she usually did. The only real audience she had ever played for was Keiichi and Sif. She liked them. There was nothing to fear from them aside from a few tactfully-crafted critiques from Sif.

Now, however, she was supposed to play for an audience of one, an audience she didn't particularly care for.

She played the piece from memory, a familiar song she often played with Sif. It was so familiar that she allowed her mind to wander a little to the idea she'd had in the shed. She just wasn't sure how Keiichi would re...

"Awful."

Her eyes popped open at the word, fire lighting them. "Excuse me?" she said.

Troubadour sighed and leaned against the plum tree. "It was awful."

"Yeah, well, I'm not an expert, you know," she growled. "I've only been playing for a couple of months."

"I'm not talking about your skill," Troubadour told him. "Your playing was... moderately competent..."

Urd seethed.

"But it didn't _say_ anything to me, and isn't that your problem?"

"Oh, I have a problem, all right," Urd bit out.

The insult flew right over the plum tree spirit's head. "If you truly think in melody now, then you must use it to speak as well. To put the feelings of your heart on full display!"

Urd's eyes narrowed. "Uh huh."

"Try again! And make me _feel_ something!"

Urd gripped the bow and wondered if he'd _feel_ it if she jabbed it through his eye. The smarmy bastard would probably critique her form while he bled to death on the ground.

She took a deep breath and started another piece. The goddess played for about a minute before he stopped her again.

"No! No! No!" he cried with a huff. "You're not getting it at all, are you?"

Urd grit her teeth, about three seconds from telling her ex to go shove his harp and...

"Have you not played a piece of music that _says_ something?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest. "Something profound?"

Urd immediately started to shake her head, but stopped. Actually...

"I have," she admitted uncertainly.

"Excellent!" Troubadour replied. "Play that!"

The goddess froze. "No," she said quietly.

"Eh?" Troubadour asked, arching an eyebrow in confusion.

Urd didn't reply. She wasn't going to play _that_ song. No way. Especially not for _him_!

"I said no," she repeated.

The elfin musician rolled his eyes. "It's just a song..."

"It's _not_ just a song," she told him dangerously. "And I'll be five hundred years in a seal before I let _you_ hear it!"

Troubadour's eyes narrowed. "I think I see..." he said.

"Good for you!" Urd bit back.

"You wrote a song about me."

Urd was thrown for a loop and couldn't quickly come back to that. Troubadour saw that as an admission of guilt.

He sighed. "Urd, I understand you have lingering feelings, but you must put those aside and concentrate on your recovery. But if my love will help you heal, then all you need to do is ask."

Urd's eyes locked onto Troubadour, and something passed over them, something that history had only seen once or twice since Urd was born...

And something Troubadour completely misinterpreted.

He held his arms out. "Come to me, darling. Together, we'll find the cure for your disability."

888

"I don't understand," Sif said, rooting through her closet.

"Do you have one or not?" Urd asked from the doorway.

"Of course I do," Sif said. "And you're welcome to my spare bow. I just don't understand what happened to yours."

"Let's just say I don't want to touch it now considering where it's been," Urd bit out.

"Ah! Here it is!" Sif declared, holding up her spare bow. She held it out to the other goddess, who took it gratefully. "If I might ask one thing of you?" she began. At Urd's nod she continued. "I'd rather not know where it's going to go."

"Don't worry, I won't screw it up," Urd told her.

"I take it things are not going well with Troubadour san," Sif said.

"Narcissistic ass," Urd muttered. "I don't know what I ever saw in him."

"Surely there was something at some point that brought you together," Sif commented.

"Yeah," Urd allowed with a nod. "Frigga hated him."

"More than the ire of your stepmother, I mean."

"I don't know," Urd said sheepishly. "There was a time, maybe, when he wasn't so caught up in himself that he actually saw me there. But that was a long time ago... back before I became just an ingredient in a bird recipe."

"How is Keiichi san adjusting?" Sif asked. "With your former lover here, I imagine he's... perturbed..."

"God! I wish he were!" Urd cried. "Even just a little! Instead, he was the one who said the Jerk should stay!"

Sif smiled. "That says a great deal about his love for you."

"I'm sure it does," Urd said with a roll of her eyes.

"It says," Sif went on, "That he'd rather see you cured and happy than ill and sad simply to salve his pride."

The goddess growled. "Still... It'd be kinda nice if he gave the Jerk a good left hook..."

"I sincerely doubt Keiichi san would strike Troubadour san just because you were once in a relationship," Sif told her. "After all, suddenly he and Troubadour san have something in common."

"Yeah, both have seen me naked, and I'm not sure I like the fact that they share a bond because of it," Urd told her.

"Urd, Keiichi san asked Troubadour san to stay because he loves you," Sif said. "And Troubadour will stay... the recent clash of your bow with his person not withstanding... because he cares for you and wants to see you well."

"I hate him," Urd said softly.

"Why?" Sif asked.

Urd didn't answer. "Look," she said, changing the subject, "I'm going out tomorrow on a secret mission. So if Keiichi or the Jerk ask, I had to go to a shoot, okay?"

"I'll tell them," Sif promised. "May I ask what you intend to do?"

Urd grinned. "I finally know what to get Keiichi for his graduation present."

Sif smiled brightly. "Splendid! Is it a sweater?!"

The Norn rubbed her temples. "I told you! No sweaters!" She took a breath. "Oh, one other thing. Make sure the Jerk doesn't give Keiichi any problems, okay?"

The blonde goddess smiled, but her eyes bore steel. "There will be no incivility in your home," she promised.

888

Troubadour walked gingerly into the kitchen, expecting to see his former paramour's grinning face at the table. Instead, he found only the other goddess, Sif, and the mortal boy... Kimchi... K.D.... whatever the hell it was.

"Good morning, Troubadour san," Sif greeted with a smile. "Won't you sit down and have some breakfast with us?"

The musician cleared his throat and turned a little red. "I... er... prefer to stand," he said.

"Okay!"

"Where is Urd?' he asked in a tone closely related to that of a demand.

"Haven't seen her yet," Keiichi said with a shrug.

"Urd asked me to tell you that she has a shoot today," Sif supplied helpfully.

"Hmmph," the plum tree spirit noted quietly. His time was valuable, not something to be wasted. And after what transpired yesterday evening, he would hope she was looking to apologize, not run off and play around in her underwear...

That image entered his head and refused to leave, and he took a breath.

"Troubadour san," Keiichi began. "You okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine!" he snapped back. "I'm just eager to help Urd get over her condition! As I'm the only one who can, I feel it is my solemn duty."

Keiichi arched an eyebrow, wishing that Urd had blown off her shoot so she could concentrate on working with Troubadour. After all, the sooner she got better, the sooner he could leave. Despite his support for his girlfriend working with Troubadour, he didn't like the guy any more than when he first visited and tried to terrorize him with creepy... crawly... scratchy...... things...

He shuddered.

"What are you doing today, Keiichi san?" Sif asked.

"Exams today," he said. "And Hotaru's taking the Akilina up today."

"Wonderful!"

"But first, Sora's coming over this morning with some guys from the Auto Club," Keiichi went on. "They're going to take the Beemer."

Sif's smile evaporated. "I'm so sorry, Keiichi san," she said.

He shrugged. "What're you gonna do?" he asked philosophically. "At least this way she might do some good."

"What's a 'Beemer?'" Troubadour asked, interrupting them.

"It's Keiichi san's motorcycle," Sif answered. "It's become so broken that it can no longer be ridden."

"And so you will just abandon it?" Troubadour asked, folding his arms over his chest in self-righteous nerve.

"No," Keiichi got out slowly. "I'm donating her to the Auto Club so they can use it to teach. I'm not throwing her in the junkyard."

"I see," Troubadour said. He held out his harp so the boy could see it. "I've had this instrument for three thousand years. I make sure to take meticulous care of it. When a string breaks, I restring it. When there's a chip in the wood, I repair it. I do this because the music she and I make together are worth the work. It's like a part of my soul."

"Hmm," Keiichi agreed quietly with a nod of his head. "Well, it does say a lot about you, Troubadour, that you would say something like that about your _harp_."

Troubadour blinked.

Standing between them, Sif winced and quietly whispered. "Ooooooooh..... burn..."

Keiichi stared the god in the eye, waiting for him to realize that it wasn't a statement of respect.

"I don't think I follow you," Troubadour said quietly.

A slow burn began to smolder in Keiichi's eyes. "It means that down here, we place more emphasis on the people in our lives... not the things..."

"I see," Troubadour said, arching an eyebrow. "This is about Urd. I chose my destiny over her, and you believe you can equate the two."

"I can almost agree with you," Keiichi said. "Except for the fact that you came down here specifically to use your old relationship with her to get something from her for that destiny. It's one thing to make choices that impact the people you love. It's another thing to trick them for it."

"As if you have ever had to make that kind of choice," Troubadour shot back. "Tell me, Morisato, if you knew your destiny parted paths from Urd's, what would you do?"

Keiichi said nothing.

"Or would you just do the same thing when you realized it parted from Belldandy's?" the musician went on with a smile.

Sif suddenly stepped between them. "Enough, please!" she cried with a hint of threat. "There are raw feelings enough in this house without irritating them further."

"It's okay, Sif," Keiichi said. "Because he's right."

Troubadour blinked in surprise at the admission while Sif looked back at him in surprise.

"Keiichi san?"

"I did make a choice," Keiichi went on. "And I'm not going to try to justify it. Because it was a selfish choice. And make no mistake, I'd make it again. But when Belldandy is free again... I'm not going to torment her with it. I'm not going to ask her for advice on what kind of flowers to get Urd or rub her nose in the fact that at the end of the day, I'm with her sister. I'm not going to pretend that I didn't hurt her. I'm going to beg her for forgiveness and hope to God that she understands. That's the difference between us, Troubadour. You don't believe you've done anything wrong by running after your golden dodo bird. I _know_ that what I've done will hurt Belldandy."

He smiled and chuckled. "And you know what? Maybe that makes me worse. I _know_ what I did was hurtful." His eyes narrowed angrily. "You're just too stupid to realize the same."

"How dare you?!" Troubadour growled.

"You don't realize it, do you?" Keiichi asked, ignoring his question. "You never saw her bleed over you. Well, I have. You gave her up... for a _bird_... and that makes you the stupidest person I've ever _heard of_!"

The musician was about to blow his top. He raised his hands up and started to waggle his fingers. "Bugs-a-bugs-a..."

"AERIS DISCHORD!"

There was suddenly a hole in the floor where Troubadour had been standing. Keiichi looked down into it and found the god lying prostrate on the bottom of it, at least thirty feet down. He looked up and found Sif standing on the other side of it, breathing hard, her hands raised over her head.

"Um... thanks, Sif," he told her.

The blonde locked her eyes on him. "And you, Keiichi san, must promise to be civil as well! Or I shall place you in a hole right next to him!"

Keiichi gulped. "Um... okay?"

"Splendid!" Sif replied with a smile. She looked down into the hole. "Troubadour san! Would you like some tea to help celebrate our newfound friendship!?"

The god raised his head a half-inch. "I'm... I'm good..."

"Keiichi san?" Sif asked.

"Actually... I think I hear Sora pulling up," he replied. "You... um... have a good day."

"You too!"

Keiichi turned to go, wondering if Troubadour would be all right.

888

"Okay, so what's the big emergency?" Megumi asked as she approached Urd at the street intersecting with Nekomi's main shopping drag.

"No emergency," Urd told her. "I just need some help."

"Everything okay?" Megumi asked. "Did that Titan thing come back or something?"

"Nope," Urd said, starting down the sidewalk. "I'm going shopping for Keiichi's graduation gift, and I need you to help me pick something out."

Megumi sighed in relief as she fell into step beside her friend. "Well, okay! So what did you decide on? Shirt? Tie?"

"Better!" Urd replied.

"Wow, better than a _tie?_" Megumi said with a grin.

Urd sighed but let the joke pass.

"So how are things with you two?" Megumi asked with a wink and a nudge.

The goddess smiled as she walked. "I don't know why," she said quietly. "But he makes me feel comfortable."

"'Comfortable?'" Megumi asked.

"I don't know," Urd said. "Maybe it's because we were so close already, but... it's like I don't have to try... and I don't have to worry."

Megumi smiled. "Well... I can kind of tell he feels the same."

"What do you mean?"

The other woman thought about it for a moment. "Okay... when Belldandy first came down, and they started living together, he was _trying_ to be her boyfriend, right? But when he met you, he just had to be your friend. He had to fret about what to say and how to be around Belldandy, but around you he could just be Kei chan."

"Heh," Urd grunted. "He said something very similar about me."

"And _that_ is why you're so good together," Megumi assured her. "You have a history beyond the relationship."

"So what you're saying is he doesn't have to work to impress me?" Urd said with an arched eyebrow. "I'm not sure how I feel about that."

"I think it means that when he does impress you... it'll be something from inside," Megumi corrected.

Urd came to stop and smiled. "We're here."

"Here?"

"I'm getting him one of these!"

Megumi looked at the BMW lot they had stopped in front of and looked at her friend. "You're getting him a new bike?"

"Yep!"

"But he's got a bike," Megumi pointed out. "And he loves that bike..."

Urd sighed. "Yeah... but he's giving it away." She quickly explained what had happened to the Beemer, and Megumi nodded.

"Well, that makes sense, I guess," she said. "And Keiichi without a bike just seems wrong. Even so, Urd, these things are really expensive."

"I've got money," Urd reminded her.

"Yeah, but if you get him something good here, you're going to have to give up half of it."

"It doesn't matter," Urd told her with a smile. "Because it'll be worth it. He loves to ride, and I love to ride with him. I want to give him that again."

Megumi thought on this as Urd went on.

"I remember the first time I rode with him," Urd told her, turning away from the lot and leaning against a lamp post. "Right after the Shinden's first flight. It was the first time in a long time that I had seen him smile and mean it. Riding along the coast at night... just me and him... even if I didn't realize then what I know now."

She turned back to Megumi. "He created a lot of memories on the Beemer," she said. "He hates letting it go. So it's my responsibility to help him create new ones."

"A lot of memories," Megumi agreed quietly. "Memories of Belldandy."

Urd blinked at her. "Huh?"

Megumi gave her a wan smile. "That's part of it, isn't it? This would be something you and he share alone."

The goddess gazed down at the concrete. "I don't mean it like that."

"I don't think you do," Megumi assured her. "But I know it must suck... doing something with Kei chan..."

"... and knowing he did it with Belldandy first," Urd finished. She nodded. "I won't lie. It does suck. And maybe I'm being a little selfish, getting him a new bike instead of just paying to fix the old one... but I want to create those memories with him. And as awful as it sounds to say, I don't want to create those memories in Belldandy's shadow."

"And I don't blame you," Megumi whispered. She smiled. "So! What were you thinking of getting him?"

Urd looked up and smiled. "Well... that's why I asked you along. You're the expert, you tell me."

"What do you want to spend?"

"As much as it takes," Urd told her. "It's only money."

"Well," Megumi said slyly. "As long as it's only money, I'll help you." She grinned. "But... you have to buy something else too."

"Something else?" Urd asked.

"Uh huh.... Something you _promised_ me you'd buy."

Urd arched an eyebrow.

888

The song that leapt from Troubadour's harp was fast and frantic, the busy-noise of a man deep in thought about something that troubled him greatly.

It wasn't that Sif blasted him. He was used to goddesses doing that. It was the blow struck by Keiichi that hurt more.

Keiichi had _his_ Urd.

Imagine, a _mortal_... touching her... kissing her...

It made his blood boil.

And _her_! How could she settle like that!? True, his Urd had always had something of a self esteem issue... Perhaps it was simply that she thought she could do no better than a mortal.

What kind of man must Keiichi Morisato be? First he netted Belldandy and now his Urd.

How?

His fingers tore at the strings on the harp as the question echoed in his mind.

She had played a song... a song that _said_ something... and after dealing with her punishment for suggesting it was for him, Troubadour had come to an earth-shattering realization.

Urd had played that song for Keiichi. He was the audience. The only one she wanted to communicate with on that level.

She had never played for _him! _Never sang for _him!_ But somehow that mortal... that upstart... had ins...

A string on his harp snapped and stung his hand. He looked down at it and blinked in surprise. The pain crystallized his thought.

_He inspired her..._

Troubadour took a breath at the realization. Keiichi inspired her. Inspired not music, but feelings, and it was those feelings that became song.

And he had never been able to inspire that in her.

What was a muse but someone who drew out the feelings that made creation possible?

He couldn't be that for her. And though he had argued otherwise in the past, she hadn't been for him either, not at that level. He had always been looking for something else to inspire him, the Golden Nightingale or the Scrolls of Selex or...

The musician sighed. Inspiration. He had used her to try to find it, and in doing so gave up the greatest source of inspiration he might ever have had.

She wouldn't play for him, and he couldn't blame her. Why would a muse wish to inspire an artist who ignores her?

In all the years they had dated, he had never heard the song of her soul.

And now that he knew there was one within her, he wanted very much to hear it.

He just hoped it wasn't too late.

888

Keiichi heard the gate on the trailer slam shut and took a breath. It was the end of an era, but he felt good about it. It was like the Beemer was going to a farm in the country where it could drive around a track all day... chasing bunnies...

But at least she wasn't going to be scrapped.

"She'll be a teaching aid, I promise," Sora told him as she walked up to him. She was filling out a form on a clipboard. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Yeah," he said. "We had a good run. I guess I really will have to get a Civic now. Only thing I can afford until I get a real job."

Sora unclipped the form and handed it to him. "This is a receipt so you can claim the donation on your taxes," she explained. "Might as well get something out of it, right?"

"Yeah," he agreed.

The Auto Club president tried to lighten the mood a little. "So what are you doing graduation night?" she asked. "The Auto Club's having a party. You're welcome to come."

"Sure, we'll drop by," Keiichi promised. "Aeronautics is having a party too. You should come by." He looked over at the trailer again and tore his eyes away from it. "So who's replacing you?" he asked.

"Takei san," Sora said with a smile. "You?"

She realized her mistake the moment the words were out of her mouth. "Sorry," she said. "I forgot."

"It's okay," he told her. "Jiroo's been running the club since I got tossed. I think he's turning it over to Hachitaka."

"Got a job lined up?" she asked, changing the subject again.

"I think Mischa wants me to stay at Sukuya," he replied. "It doesn't pay a lot, but I get to play with airplanes all day." He smiled. "What about you?"

Sora looked embarrassed for a moment before saying, "The Japanese Space Agency."

Keiichi blinked. "What?"

The bespectacled girl nodded. "They're building a Mars rover of their own, like NASA's, and I guess they saw some of our weirder designs and asked me to work for them."

"Sora! That's great!" he cried.

She shrugged, embarrassed. "Yeah, it's cool, I guess."

Keiichi smiled. "Wow... Remember when we met? Who would have guessed we'd be here now?"

"Yeah," Sora agreed. "Funny how things turn out. Leaving school... It's weird. It's like everything is changing..."

"Everything _is_ changing," he reminded her.

She smiled and slapped his shoulder with the clipboard. "I gotta jet," she said. "Exams today. You got 'em too, right?"

"Yeah, I just need to grab my helmet and..." He froze, suddenly realizing just how much things have changed in the last ten minutes. "Or... I guess I just need to get to the train station," he corrected.

"You want a ride?"

"Nah," he said. "I think I'll walk it."

888

She found him by the koi pond, staring down into the water. Grinning evilly, she called out to him.

"Oi, Troubadour," she hailed. "Did you ever find my bow?"

"Yes," he said simply. "Now, please, let us never speak of it again!"

Urd smiled, feeling good enough about the day's events to give her ex some slack. Even so, there were some things that had to be addressed.

"I saw the hole in the kitchen floor," she commented darkly. "Were you getting fresh with Sif?"

"Keiichi and I had a conversation," Troubadour told her. "He is quite foolish to speak to a god that way."

"Keiichi does a lot of foolish things," Urd allowed. "But I can't fault him for it."

"Are you ready to begin again?" he asked her.

She raised her violin as evidence. "All set."

He turned back to the koi pond and looked down into it. Urd waited for him to say something, perplexed at his silence.

"Hey, you awake?" Urd asked him.

He nodded. "Put the violin away."

"Eh?"

The musician looked at her, his eyes travelling over her, remembering the nights they used to spend together when she didn't hate him, when he wasn't out looking for his destiny.

"I've sung many songs about you, Urd," he said quietly. "Beautiful songs..."

Urd rolled her eyes. "Look, we've been over this. If you're thinking you can write a pretty song and get me back, you need to take a step back and..."

"No," he said, cutting her off. "I've sung many songs, telling you how beautiful you are... how other men weren't worthy of you... how you were part of my destiny..." He faced her. "Do you know why they all failed?"

"No," she said with a sigh.

"Because I never sang them with a melody born of my heart... the way you can sing," he told her. "And I never sang the song I should have. The one where I say I'm sorry."

She stared at him, refusing to be moved by his words. Yet, somehow, they sounded more sincere than anything he had said to her since his arrival.

"If I had sung that song... back when it would have done some good... Perhaps you would have heard the other songs too."

"Troubadour..."

He stepped toward her and took her by the shoulders. "That upstart mortal told me something today," he said. "Actually, he said many things... but the one that spoke to me was that he and I both made choices that hurt people. The only difference was that I didn't understand that... or take responsibility for it."

That didn't surprise her. She knew Keiichi. Though he had chosen Urd, he would agonize over its eventual impact on Belldandy. He would own up to that with her one day, take responsibility for it. He would hurt Belldandy... but he wouldn't try to justify it or dodge the blame. Belldandy might hate him forever, but he would take the hit.

"Urd," he whispered, "You can translate words... but not feelings. That is what your angel waits for. Sing it the way you feel it, sing it the way you would sing for Keiichi... and she will come."

He took a step back and watched her, waiting for her to act.

Urd licked her lips, not sure what to do. She could hear the words in her head, just as she always said them, but beneath those thoughts... beneath those words...

She closed her eyes and remembered Sif's words to her just before she played for Keiichi.

"_Play it the way you feel it."_

The goddess reached into those words and searched for their meaning. They were not just a summons, not merely a "hey, get over here!" To summon an angel was to summon a piece of your soul. It meant to hear the song in your heart reflected back in an echo.

She closed her eyes and opened her mouth.

Troubadour's eyes went wide as the melody emerged from the lips of his ex-girlfriend. There were no words, no lyrics, it was the goddess's voice in music, and at the same time it wasn't.

It was feelings, as if Urd was translating not words but emotions into musical notes. They struck the musician like a physical presence. He started blinking rapidly and realized he was crying.

"Oh, my," he heard next to him. He turned and found that Sif had come up behind him without him noticing. "It's beautiful," she breathed, a tear running down her cheek.

"It is," Troubadour agreed. "It's the song of a beautiful woman."

"It's her thoughts, her feelings, all rolled up into melody," Sif opined.

The song ended, and Urd took a breath.

Sif and Troubadour's eyes went wide as Urd's chest began to glow a soft white, and angel wings appeared as World of Elegance rose from her mistress. Urd opened her eyes and slowly turned her head until her eyes met her angel's.

World of Elegance leapt forward and embraced Urd, tears running rivers down her face. Urd hugged her tightly.

"Welcome back," she whispered.

Sif sniffled with emotion and turned to thank Troubadour, but she found the god walking toward the plum tree nearby.

"Troubadour," she called, running after him. "Please wait! Where are you going?"

"Back to Heaven," he told her with a smile. "There's much work for me to do."

"Work?" Sif asked. She turned back to Urd and found the Norn still embracing her angel, unaware of the other two deities. "But... please stay! At least for dinner. Let us thank you."

He paused and smiled. "I got to hear the sound of Urd's soul," he said. "In all the time we were together, I never got to hear that." He faced Sif and nodded. "And now that I have, I can never call a piece of music fair unless it be her song. Perhaps one day, I'll have a song to sing for her."

Before Sif could reply a swarm of plum blossoms swirled around him, and he was gone.

"Troubadour," Sif whispered. She smiled.

888

Keiichi put the crescent wrench in the toolbox and shut the lid. That was the last one. The shed was officially "tidy."

He turned to the empty space where the Beemer used to sit and sighed. A man's workshop wasn't supposed to be tidy. There was supposed to be tools lying about, empty beer cans resting in key locations...

... Oh, and there should be a freaking motorcycle in the center of it.

He opened the toolbox again and took out the crescent wrench, putting it down on the work bench at a slight angle so that it at least looked as if it had been placed there haphazardly.

That was a little better.

He didn't want to feel like this. It was a good day. Urd had succeeded in summoning World of Elegance, who, upon seeing Keiichi again, gave him a nudge and a wink and a thumbs up...

...and then a not-so-subtle shove toward Urd...

He also got to see Troubadour blasted. That was awesome.

And. Then. He. LEFT.

Which counted as a double win.

He just felt as if there was a hole in him. A weird empty feeling. Tomorrow, instead of mounting up on his steel horse and riding triumphantly to his last exam, he was going to take the train...

...like a douche...

"Keiichi san!" he heard Sif call from the house. "Phone for you!"

He sighed. "Coming!" he called back. He picked up the crescent wrench and started to put it away again, but stopped himself. Tossing it on the workbench again he walked out of the shed and up toward the back door.

Sif met him at the back door and smiled. "It's Urd," she told him.

"Urd?" he asked. He didn't know Urd had gone out. He picked up the phone and put it to his ear, a look of concern in his eyes. "Hey," he said. "Where are you calling from?"

"My new cell phone!" Urd told him from the other end of the line. "I promised Megumi I'd get one back during the whole Titan thing. It's actually pretty cool. I've been downloading stuff for it all afternoon."

"Well, that's cool," he said.

"Yeah, I got you one too!"

"Why did you get _me_ a cell phone?" he asked.

"Because who else am I going to talk to?" Urd shot back.

"Teletha," Keiichi answered. "Sayoko, Megumi, Simone, Kiyoshi..."

"Truuuuuue," Urd drawled out. "But I can't send _them_ racy pictures of myself, now can I?"

Keiichi didn't answer.

"And... 'send,'" she said, and Keiichi heard a tone on the other end of the phone. "I just sent one to your new phone. So.... still not interested?"

"Where are you?" he asked, grinning as he shook his head.

"Out front," she said. "I got you something else. Come on out."

He smiled. How was it that she could make him smile any time she wanted? "Okay," he said. "Be right out."

Keiichi put the phone down and started for the front door. Sliding it aside, he stepped out onto the porch and stopped short in surprise.

At the bottom of the steps, Urd was lying on a cobalt blue motorcycle, her long-sleeve purple blouse and leather skirt making her look like an ad in a magazine. Her head was propped up on her hand on the bike's seat with her high heels resting on the handlebars. She smiled at him.

"Happy graduation," she said.

He started down the steps, his eyes wide at the sight. He wondered briefly how Urd was balancing on the bike, but realized it was a stupid question given how Belldandy could stand on top of flagpoles when she wanted to.

Urd arched an eyebrow. "What do you think?" she asked.

"Beautiful," he commented.

She rolled her eyes. "I meant the bike."

"I was talking about the bike," he shot back.

Urd feigned insult and gasped, rising to a sitting position and crossing her legs. "Fine! I'll leave you two to be alone!"

He waited for a few heartbeats. "What is this?" he asked softly.

"It's your graduation present," she said.

"Urd," he said quietly. "I can't accept something like this... It's too much..."

"Oh, yes you can," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "I had the money just lying around... and you _need_ a motorcycle. It's a part of who you are."

"Yeah, but..."

"Besides," she broke, crossing her legs again. "I've grown accustomed to a certain lifestyle, one where I can just say, 'hey, Keiichi! Take me to the mall!' and you and I hop on the bike and we go. Otherwise," she sighed, "I have to take the train... and... and..." She sniffled and whimpered, wiping a tear from her eye. "And there are men, Keiichi... men who... find young, hot women like me and...." She sniffed again before finishing. "PINCH THEIR ASSES!" The goddess started to cry dramatically.

He sighed, his eyebrow twitching.

"All...all... all I want is to be able to go places without constantly being violated!" Urd wailed.

Keiichi rubbed his temples. "If I accept it, will you knock off the drama?"

"Maaaaaaybe," Urd told him with a grin, her tears gone. "Come on, Keiichi!" she cried. "Think of it. You and me cruising south and picking up the ferry to Kyushu, the wind in your hair..."

The mortal bit his lip, and Urd knew she had him.

"And if you don't take it, I'm just going to have to sell it to someone who will probably just abuse it... Put crappy gas in it.... not change the oil.... keep the tires _well_ below what the manual says the pressure should be..."

"Okay! Okay! You win!" Keiichi said with a smile.

She patted the seat next to her and watched him as he climbed on in front of her, his hands resting on the handlebars.

"Megumi helped me pick it out," Urd confessed as she wrapped her arms around him. "Said it was a good model for cruising around..."

"A BMW K 1300 GT," Keiichi recited. "It's great," he told her, turning so he could look her in the eye. "Thank you."

She smiled. "Good," she said. "I'm glad you like it."

"But seriously," he said. "No more huge gifts like this, okay? People are going to start thinking I'm a kept man or a gigolo..."

"Well, then you better start putting out," Urd told him firmly.

He laughed.

Her eyes danced to the sound of his laugh. "Keiichi... this is my role," she said. "I'm supposed to make you happy."

"The contract just says you have to stay by my side," he corrected.

"I wasn't talking about the contract," she said with a shake of her head. "Friend, girlfriend, lover... it doesn't matter. My job is to make you smile." She leaned against him and rested her cheek on his shoulder. "Just like you do for me."

"Urd," he whispered.

"I mean it," she said firmly, her voice brooking no argument. "You have no idea how it makes me feel to know you're there for me. And I'm always going to be there for you. I don't have to hide who I am from you... how I feel... what I think... Let me make you happy. Let me be the one who grants your wishes from now on."

Keiichi closed his eyes and covered her hands with his. "Take a ride with me?" he asked.

She squeezed him harder. "Let's go!"

888

"Well, come on, Hon," Sayoko said, rising to her feet and putting her hand on Shin's shoulder. "Say goodbye to Uncle Keiichi."

"Bye, Uncle Keiichi. Bye, Belldandy san," Shin said obediently.

"Goodbye, Shin," Keiichi returned. "Be good for your mom, okay?"

"I will."

Keiichi and Belldandy watched them walk out of the hangar.

"I'm happy for her," Belldandy said quietly.

"So am I," Keiichi said. He looked away and took a breath. "And... well... that's how it happened. After that... well... it just took." He strolled toward the airplane, Belldandy walking next to him.

"She made you happy," Belldandy finished for him.

"She did," Keiichi said as they came up to Verushka. "She does. There were rough patches... Oh, God,... there were rough patches..." He paused and turned to her. "Belldandy, I don't know why Hild released you now. I don't know if she wanted to kick sand in your face or if she wanted to try to rebuild a bridge with Urd now that she's pregnant again. She tried that once before... a couple of weeks before Urd miscarried. Believe it or not, it hit Hild hard..." His eyes went distant and his voice lowered to whisper. "Very hard."

He seemed to snap out of it and turned to her again, reaching up and resting a hand on Verushka's left elevator. "Belldandy... you were the first woman I ever really loved. I don't want you to think that I never did. I knew back then that what I was doing would hurt you. And if you hate me for the rest of your life... I understand. But I know Urd wants you to be a part of our lives. She wants you to know your nephew."

"I would like to know him too," Belldandy said with the barest hint of a smile. "And I am glad that you and she found happiness."

_And who is THIS?!_ Keiichi heard in his head.

He rolled his eyes.

Belldandy saw the change in his demeanor and gave him a questioning look.

"Verushka," Keiichi explained.

The goddess smiled and reached out, touching the aircraft's tail section. "Hello, Verushka san! It's wonderful to meet you!"

_Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry. Could you repeat that slowly? My "cheating whore" is a little rusty..._

Keiichi groaned. "Verushka..." he warned.

Belldandy smiled. "It's all right, Verushka san. I won't try to get between the two of you. I trust you to take care of him." Her eyes met his as she said this.

"What will you do now?" he asked her.

She sniffled, trying to hold back tears. "Go home," she answered.


	33. On the Beach

Disclaimer: I don't own AMG.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 33**

**On the Beach**

"So, did she accept your apology?"

Urd blinked at the sudden question, its abruptness shaking her out of her momentary reverie. She looked across the table at her youngest sister, who was staring at her expectantly, and arched an eyebrow.

"My apology?" she asked.

"Yeah," Skuld replied. "You know... for stealing her man? That apology? Something like, 'sorry I screwed up your love life?'"

Urd smiled bitterly. "No," she told her younger sister. "She hasn't. Because I haven't apologized."

Sitting between them, Sif watched the two sisters in interest.

"You waiting for just the right time or something?" Skuld asked.

"No," Urd let out, a tinge of irritation coloring the word. "I'm not going to apologize... and I've told her that."

Skuld folded her arms over her chest. "Wow... and you get pissy with Peorth?"

"It's not the same," Urd told her, sipping her tea and wishing she could have a good shot of sake to pour into it...

"Sure it's not," Skuld replied. "Because it's you, right?"

Urd glared at her sister. Even after all these years, Skuld still didn't care for what Urd had done, going as far back as the first night they confronted Hild. Now that Belldandy was back and Urd was forced to face up to what she'd done, Skuld apparently couldn't resist twisting the knife a little.

Sif, as usual, came to Urd's rescue.

"Skuld san," the goddess began, "It might be awhile before Belldandy returns. Perhaps you should go meet her at Keiichi san's office."

The youngest goddess's eyes never left Urd's, but she nodded. "Good idea, Sif." She rose to her feet. "Anything I should tell her?" she asked Urd pointedly.

Urd bit her lip and met her sister's accusatory glare head on. "Yeah," she said. "Dinner's at six."

Skuld sighed and shook her head before turning on her heel and starting for the door. Urd watched as Sif suddenly jumped up and rushed after her.

"Skuld san!" she called. Skuld turned and put her hands on her hips, waiting for the blonde to lecture her like she usually did.

Instead Sif smiled, a little nervously in Skuld's opinion.

"Skuld san, would you do me a favor, and ask Keiichi san to check his messages?"

The young goddess blinked, thrown by the mundane nature of the request and the emphasis Sif put in her voice while making it. Not sure how she could make a zing of a retort to something like that, she merely nodded.

"Yeah, sure," she said.

Sif stood there and watched Skuld leave the house. She sighed and turned, finding Urd sitting at the table, sipping her tea as if nothing had happened.

"To be fair," Sif began cautiously, "It was an obvious question."

Urd's eyes snapped to Sif's in irritation. "I'm not going to apologize," she said. "Not to Belldandy, Skuld or anyone else."

"But surely you can see why she would make that assumption..."

"What am I supposed to apologize for, Sif?" Urd asked her pointedly. "Falling in love with Keiichi? That he fell in love with me? Making him happy? Him making _me_ happy?" She rested her hand on her midsection. "I'm carrying his baby, a baby who can feel everything I feel right now. Am I supposed to be ashamed of him, Sif? Should I _regret_ conceiving him?"

"No, of course not," Sif whispered. "But I do remember a time when you were... not ashamed of what you'd done... but..."

"Yeah, I know," Urd told her. "But I dropped that baggage the same time Keiichi did."

"When was that?" Sif asked.

"Kyushu."

"Ah," Sif said in a tone of amused understanding.

"Not because we did _that_!" Urd chastised her. Sif arched an eyebrow. "Don't get me wrong," Urd went on. "We did do _that_..." She smiled at the memory. "Yeah, we did that... But Keiichi also made the decision to leave his relationship with Belldandy behind. In a way, he said goodbye to her on that trip."

"How?" Sif asked, retaking her seat.

Urd smiled. "Keiichi is so old-fashioned, it hurts sometimes," she said. "You know, up until that trip, we hadn't..." She searched the ceiling for the right word.

"Consummated your fledgling relationship in a physical sense?" Sif offered helpfully.

The Norn rolled her eyes. "I thought you were an artist, not a scientist," she noted.

"Hmm," Sif replied with amusement, putting her finger to her lip in thought. "'Strove for the heights of physical love and explored one another as only two lovers can?'"

"Better," Urd muttered. "For a virgin," she added with a grin.

"Hmmph!"

Urd took amusement in her friend's ire. Sif could be so uptight sometimes, but she had no better friend in the world. She just, in Urd's humble opinion, needed a good lay.

It was rather puzzling to Urd that the blonde didn't have a boyfriend. Then again, men were probably intimidated by her the way they were intimidated by Belldandy. When you were the perfect girlfriend, most of the good men felt the need to be the perfect boyfriend, and if they couldn't be that, they felt they were failing in some way. Meanwhile, the kind that looked at Sif or Belldandy as easy conquests often found their prey not as toothless as they at first thought.

"So what happened?" Sif asked her, trying to get the conversation back on topic.

Urd smiled.

888

Skuld's foot hit the last step, depositing her on the sidewalk that ran alongside Subetai Ave. and eventually to the airport. Yes, she could have taken her travel medium or hopped lightpole to lightpole, but it had been awhile since she had seen Nekomi, and it was a nice day.

Her attention came to an elderly woman watering the lawn of a tiny house across the street. The woman saw her and waved in a friendly manner.

"Hello, dearie!" the woman called out.

"Hi," Skuld replied. She looked both ways for traffic before casually crossing the street.

"Are you a friend of the Morisatos?" the woman asked with a gentle smile as she arced the water from her hose across the yard to hit a patch in the corner.

"I'm Urd's half-sister," Skuld said with a reflexive eye-roll. She leaned on the chainlink fence that separated the yard from the sidewalk.

"Oh!" the old lady replied. "I didn't know Urd had a sister!"

"She has two, actually," Skuld told her. "But I doubt you would have heard of either of us."

"Is that so?"

The goddess nodded, feeling a touch vindictive toward her oldest sister. "We're not very close," she explained.

"That is such a shame," the old woman said. "They're such a nice young couple..."

"Yeah, they're great," Skuld said deadpan. "Now that Urd's pregnant again..."

The woman brightened. "Young Urd is pregnant again? How delightful!"

"Yeah, yeah," Skuld said.

"You must be looking forward to being an aunt," the woman commented.

Skuld shrugged. "Whatever. Anyway, I gotta go. It was nice talking to you." She started down the sidewalk with a wave.

The old woman waved back. "And you too, dearie!" She turned back to watering her lawn and blinked as the water pressure suddenly slackened.

"Hmm," the old woman said, tugging on the hose to try to shake out the kink she knew must be there. With a frustrated grunt, she finally gave up and followed along the path of the green hose toward the side of the house, blinking as she came upon the faucet.

It was off.

"Hmm," she grunted, leaning down to turn it back on. As she bent over, something landed silently behind her, with barely a whisper of the wind to mark its arrival.

The hose expanded as the water returned, and the old lady clapped her hands off as she painfully stood up again. She turned...

And clutched at her throat as a flash of metal silently sliced through it.

Without a word, the old woman fell to the grass and looked up at her attacker as her eyes started to darken.

But by then, Ameko was already gone.

_Six years ago..._

Urd held on tight as Keiichi put the GT into a hard turn coming off the ferry's ramp and down the coastal road toward Kagoshima. From what she understood, the resort wasn't far, which was good news for her. Although she enjoyed riding behind Keiichi, you could only do so much of it before one developed a sore backside.

And the last thing she wanted on this trip was a sore backside...

The last few days had been hectic, to say the least. Keiichi graduated from NIT with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering, and then the partying began. Suffice to say, they both started this trip with hangovers, and the only person who was sober was Megumi, who looked rather pissed about it when she and Toshio left for the airport for Paris.

But even through a sake headache, Urd could plot, and plot she did. It was time to make a move on Keiichi. She was his girlfriend, his lover. It was only natural.

And one thing she didn't want was for their relationship to stagnate.

They pulled onto a side street and passed under a sign that said, "Rakuen Resort and Hotel." Urd smiled. They were almost there. The bike veered right and cleared the treeline, and Urd's smile widened. A beautiful white, sandy beach stretched out before them, the shoreline dotted with small cabins with a larger building sitting in the center.

"It's beautiful," she cried, making sure she was loud enough for Keiichi to hear.

"Yeah!" he called over his shoulder. He turned into the main office's drop-off loop and brought the bike to a halt at the door. The GT went silent, and Keiichi pulled his helmet and sunglasses off.

"Okay," he said with a held breath. "We gotta be smooth here, okay?"

Urd grinned as she removed her sunglasses. She hadn't let Keiichi in on Megumi's surprise yet, and didn't intend to... as long as it remained funny.

"I got it," she said, nimbly climbing off the GT.

"You got it?" Keiichi asked.

"Yep!" she replied, stretching the kinks out of her arms. "You wait here."

He blinked in puzzlement. "But... shouldn't we go in together?"

She flashed him a reassuring smile. "Come on! It makes sense! They might recognize that you're not Toshio..."

"SHHHH!" he hissed, waving his hands at her.

This was too much fun...

"I mean, after all," she began, "The clerk might have seen a picture of him on the boss's desk. But what are the odds that they have a picture of Megumi?"

He bit his lip. "Okay," he finally relented. "But if it looks like they're not going for it just... run or something..."

"Don't worry! I'll just blow up the resort!"

"SHHHHHH!" he hissed again. "You _have_ to stop saying things like that!" he whispered.

She leaned forward and kissed him. "But you like it when I talk tough," she poked him. "I'll be right back. Just keep the bike warm in case we have to jet." The goddess trotted into the office before he could reply, but Urd all but laughed when she heard the GT's engine come to life again.

Too much fun indeed...

She walked up to the front desk, reaching into her jacket pocket for the voucher Megumi had given her. A perky hostess on the other side of the desk smiled and welcomed her.

"Yeah," Urd said, passing the voucher across the desk. "Reservation for Morisato."

The hostess checked the computer and smiled. "Here it is. Congratulations, Morisato san! We have you booked for the Honeymoon Cabin..."

"Oh?" Urd asked. "Is it nice?"

"Oh, it's beautiful," the girl gushed. "It has its own secluded beach, hot tub, king-sized western-style bed..."

"Well, I hope the springs are strong," Urd told her with a wink. The hostess giggled as she pulled the room keys from a drawer behind the desk.

"Dinners at The Mariner restaurant are included in the voucher," the hostess explained. She handed Urd the keys and a map with the cabin circled in red. "If you need anything just dial zero."

Urd gave her another wink and turned for the door. She paused and grinned just inside the door and quickly threw it open, running toward the bike as fast as she could.

She jumped on the bike behind him and screamed. "GO! GO! GO!"

"JEEZ!" Keiichi cried, gunning the engine and zooming off as Urd laughed hysterically.

888

"You could have told me... like... _weeks_ ago," Keiichi pointed out as the two of them walked up the steps to the large cabin that sat a mere twenty meters from the beach.

"How would _that_ be funny?" she asked gamely. She turned around and looked at the water as Keiichi fiddled with the lock on the door. "Oh, Keiichi, look at that."

"Hmm?" he asked, turning. He caught sight of the sun setting over the water and whistled. "Wow, that _is_ something," he whispered.

Urd took in the view while Keiichi opened the front door. Following him inside, it was her turn to let out an impressed whistle.

"Oh my god," she whispered. "Look at this! Champagne on the table!" She checked the label before sticking her head into the bathroom. "Hot tub!"

Keiichi looked around the living room while his girlfriend checked the other rooms. He had expected a rustic little cabin, something cute but relying more on the location than the amenities. This, however, was simply luxurious.

"Keiichi... come in here," Urd called from the bedroom.

He stepped across the living room, past a big-screen flat-panel TV, and into the open bedroom. Urd was standing just inside, gesturing to something out of a romance novel. The four-poster bed was covered with white rose petals while diaphanous streams of silk hung from post to post.

"Wow," Keiichi noted.

"Yeah, I've never been to Paris," Urd declared, "But Toshio and Megumi should definitely have come here for their honeymoon."

"They must have put a lot of work into getting this place ready for them," Keiichi said, examining a second bottle of champagne chilling on the nightstand. "I kinda feel bad now."

"Well," Urd said, sitting on the bed and lying back among the petals. "We could always make it worth their effort and..." She stretched out and arched her back, giving him a good view of her breasts. "... consummate our new-found relationship."

She had the profound satisfaction of seeing him blush a deep crimson. The goddess grinned at him and put her hands behind her head.

"Um," he began. "I... um..."

"Come on, Keiichi," she said seductively. "We're both mature adults... We can talk about sex..."

The word spoken aloud made him blush even deeper. He cleared his throat and sat down on the bed. "It's just... I mean... don't get me wrong, I... um..."

She reached up and popped the top button of her blouse. "Keiichi," she breathed, "You don't have to be shy... You've seen me naked before..."

"Yeah, but..." He bit his lip and looked away.

Urd blinked. This wasn't just typical Keiichi Morisato shyness. There was something actually wrong.

"Keiichi?" she asked, her voice turning to mild concern. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he replied with a forced smile. "I just... um..."

She arched an eyebrow. "Keiichi, I can't read your mind, but I know a lie when I hear one." She smiled gently. "Come on. What is it?"

"It's..." He took a breath. "We haven't actually talked about this yet, but..."

"What? Sex?"

He looked down at her and bit his lip. "Belldandy."

She let out a breath and sat up so she was sitting next to him. It was a little frustrating that he would bring up Belldandy now and here of all places. But she couldn't blame him. Keiichi wasn't the kind of guy who could just give up his guilt... and neither was she. She had just been hoping that she could ignore it for a little longer.

"What about her?" Urd asked him.

"It's stupid," he said, his head bowed. "I don't... I mean... I love you," he told her. "I don't want you to think that I'm hesitant because of that, it's just..." He paused and shook his head.

"Out with it," she said with a hint of warning. She never believed in mollycoddling someone who obviously wanted to say something.

"Belldandy is out there somewhere," he said. "And wherever she is, she thinks we're a couple. And... I know it's stupid, but it's like I can't take that final step until I explain it to her... until I tell her it's over."

Urd let out a breath. "Well... that's going to be... difficult," she allowed.

"I know," he said. "And I don't mean that I'm actually going to _wait_ for that... I just... I mean what the hell am I supposed to say to her when she..."

"What are _we_ supposed to say?" Urd corrected him. She sighed and leaned back, resting on her elbows. "Keiichi," she said quietly, "I understand. Really, I do. You and I... we're both going to have to make our peace with this. How do you think I feel? I _stole_ you... from my _sister_."

"I know," he whispered. "And... I don't mean to... I mean..." He sighed. "Dammit."

"Keiichi," she began again. "I could tell you not to worry about it. I could tell you that this is something Belldandy would want. I could tell you anything you want to hear to make you feel better for a day or two... But in the end, you're going to have to come to terms with this on your own."

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"Don't be," she replied, a twinge of pain squeezing her heart. "If you weren't the kind of man who thought and felt such things... I don't think I could feel this way about you. Take your time. Do what you have to do." She smiled. "I have time."

She laid back on the bed and sighed. "In the meantime... get out."

"Huh?"

The goddess threw him a grin. "Look, Keiichi, sleeping together, sleeping apart, one thing is certain," she said. "And that is that _I_ am sleeping in the king-size bed. I'm sure the couch will be fine. Here, have a pillow."

She offered him one of the eight fluffy pillows that littered the head of the western-style bed.

Keiichi took the pillow and started for the door with a sigh. Turning back, he made one more effort.

"I think we should flip for it," he said.

Urd smiled. "Keiichi, any time you want to sleep here, you're welcome."

He smiled. "Thanks for the pillow."

"Anytime."

888

"A touchy predicament," Sif commented, resting her cheek on her hand and her elbow on the table.

"But so like him," Urd agreed. "He was so innocent back then. It was almost a shame to deflower him," she added with a grin.

The grin disappeared a moment later. "He's changed a lot since then," Urd went on quietly. "Something hardened him... dulled the shine on his halo..."

Sif hid behind her tea cup. "Do you know what it was?" she asked.

Urd looked at her silently. "Yeah," she replied evenly.

The blonde blinked, surprised at the revelation. "O...Oh?" she asked.

Urd nodded. "It was losing G..." She shut her eyes. "...the baby," she finished, unwilling to speak Gersemi's name for fear of losing her composure again. "He was never the same after that."

Sif looked at her sadly.

"I was afraid," Urd told her, her voice barely a whisper, "That he blamed me."

"Oh, Urd! Of course he didn't!" Sif cried, grabbing her hands and squeezing them. "Never! Not once!"

The Norn seemed surprised at Sif's reaction. She smiled. "I know... Oh, so... anyway," she said, sitting back. "Back to the juicy parts..."

_Six years ago..._

Keiichi woke up and found himself lying precariously on the bare edge of the couch. While the bed was huge, the couch was a little on the small side, and he had proven it by falling off it twice in the night. He carefully rose to a sitting position and yawned.

_Well, it's your own fault,_ he thought. _Can you blame her for kicking you out? You basically rejected her for Belldandy... again..._

He stood up and walked to the front window to take a look out at the water. Looking out, he saw a familiar river of moonlight-colored hair sitting under a wide-brimmed straw hat, looking out at the ocean. He stepped out the door and walked over to her.

"Good morning," he said walking around her to say hello. "Wou..." He broke off, his eyes going wide at what he saw.

Urd smiled up at him. "Morning," she said, stretching out on the beach towel and arching her back. "Sleep well?"

Keiichi said nothing, just staring down at her.

"I didn't want to wake you, so I came out here for a little sunbathing," Urd explained. She saw his expression, and she grinned wider. "You okay?"

He swallowed and cleared his throat. "Um... Urd," he managed to get out. "You... um... know this isn't a nude beach, right?"

"It's a _private_ beach," she corrected with an upraised finger. "That means it's as nude as we want it to be."

She knew she wasn't being fair, but this was war.

"Besides," she went on, stretching out again to make sure he got a very good look at her tanned body. A lock of her silver hair fell over her right breast, a calculated move to conceal her scar. "Can you imagine the kind of crap I'd get from Teletha if I came back with tan lines?"

He pointed a finger down at her. "You fight dirty," he told her.

"Hello!" she cried in response. "Half demon here!"

Keiichi took a breath while Urd rolled onto her side. "Keiichi, I meant what I said last night. Take your time. Get over whatever you need to get over, but at the same time there's something you need to know about me."

The man looked down at her and blinked. She looked back, her face serious.

"There's one thing me and the Titan have in common," she explained. "And that's that I can't accept just half of your heart." She looked at him, her eyes just a little sad. "I can't... I won't... lie in bed next to you and wonder if you're thinking about Belldandy. You loved her. I get that. But I want _all_ of you."

"I know," he said. "And _I_ get _that_. I just feel like such a dick about what this is going to do to her. I mean, it's knowing that that conversation is coming...and I still don't know what to say."

"So figure that out," she suggested, turning to lie on her back again.

"What are you going to tell her?" Keiichi asked.

Urd paused for a moment before lowering her sunglasses down over her eyes.

"I'm going to tell her that I love you," she said. "And then take whatever hit she feels like giving me. What else can I say? I can't soften the blow."

Keiichi nodded and chucked a thumb at the house. "I'm gonna go get some breakfast. You want some?"

"That'd be great," she said.

888

_You're being stupid,_ his mind chastised him as he walked down the beach, alone with his thoughts.

He knew that. He knew that the horse was out of the barn, and at this point it didn't matter what he did with Urd. He could remain as chaste as... well... as he'd been up until this point until the day Belldandy came back and it would make no difference.

Because he said the words, "I love you," to another woman, and that is all Belldandy would hear.

So what the hell was his problem?

Nerves? To be fair, Urd was... intimidating. He was a virgin, didn't know the first thing about what to do with a woman, and she was a love goddess, probably trained by Venus to be the divine representation of sensuality.

No, while there was that factor, that wasn't it. He had betrayed Belldandy, and that conversation with her, that confession, was coming. It loomed over him like a sword of Damocles. But Urd was also right. There was no way to soften the blow. Keiichi could make them both as miserable as possible, and it wouldn't matter.

Because he loved Urd, and _that_ was the sin he was going to have to confess, to justify his actions.

But how could he justify that to her?

Or should he?

He blinked as an answer came to him. The former undergrad didn't have to justify anything to anyone, not even Belldandy. He had to justify it to himself.

A new course set, he started for the winding road that led to the main office and hoped they had a convenience store there. He needed something to write on.

888

Urd sat in the hot tub and tried to relax, to chase the guilt away, but it was lingering despite her best efforts.

She was being immature, trying to entice Keiichi this way. It wasn't fair to him... and yes, while what he was going through wasn't fair to _her_, it's not like he was throwing it in her face.

Belldandy was his first love, and that wasn't something you could just throw away, especially under these circumstances. He was in a tough spot. He loved her. He loved Belldandy. He had decided to be with Urd, but that didn't change the fact that he loved Belldandy. As World of Elegance had pointed out, his heart was big enough to love them both.

In some weird harem anime or some doujinshi writer's wet dream, the answer would be that he should have them both, but real life didn't work that way. He had loved two women, and he did the mature and responsible thing. He chose one. But at the same time, he wanted to do the _right_ thing, and that meant breaking up with Belldandy before going off to be with the older sister.

Unfortunately, in this context, it made things difficult.

And, of course, she had gone and made it even _more_ difficult by essentially giving him an ultimatum and throwing her sexy body in his face.

So now he was off walking the beach alone on what was _supposed_ to be their romantic getaway, and she was soaking in the hot tub feeling like a bitch.

She wanted a physical relationship with Keiichi. There was nothing wrong with that in her eyes. While she refused to compare her new boyfriend with Troubadour, one thing she knew as truth was that physically expressing one's love could be a pleasurable, fun and intimate act. She _liked_ sex. If that made her a slut, so be it. Sleeping with Troubadour had been one of the brighter points of their relationship (mostly because he didn't talk or sing). When she and Troubadour had broken up, the physical yearning, the newfound absence of the intimacy she had become accustomed to had been difficult to overcome. When she and Keiichi had _finally_ stopped dancing around one another and admitted they loved each other, her subconscious mind, that part of her that missed that physical intimacy, had delighted at the prospect of its return.

So here, in what was probably the most romantic setting they were ever going to be in together, to hear that he wouldn't touch her until Belldandy knew about them... it irked her.

Just a bit.

But that wasn't fair. Keiichi was a good man trying to do the right thing, and she wouldn't have fallen for him if he wasn't like that. That meant, as his girlfriend, she _had_ to support him on this.

"Dammit," she muttered up at the ceiling. "Loving someone is _hard._"

She looked down from the ceiling and found World of Elegance dabbing at her neck with a sponge on the other side of the hot tub. "Am I crazy?" she asked her angel.

The angel smiled and nodded.

"I meant specifically about _this_." Urd bit out in response.

The angel took a breath and bounced the idea around in her head. Finally, she smiled and shrugged.

"You're a great help," Urd told her. She sighed and leaned back in the tub again. It wasn't right that things were like this. They were on vacation. They were supposed to be having fun.

So that's what she was going to do.

When Keiichi came back, she was going to take him to dinner. They were going to have a nice evening, talk just like they usually did, and maybe go for a walk. And she was _not_ going to toy with his libido. If this was what he wanted, then she was going to support him and make it easier for him, not harder.

She sighed sadly.

"I just hope I don't have to wait until he's eighty or something," she told Elegance. "I'll end up breaking his hip."

The angel giggled at the thought.

888

Keiichi wasn't sure what to expect when he got back to the cabin. He half expected to see a giant cake in the middle of the room, strip tease music and a nude goddess popping out of the top as if it were his birthday...

He paused on the front porch. _Mental note... giant cake for birthday. Urd might actually go for that..._

The graduate shook the thought off and carried the notepad he had bought through the front door.

Sure enough, Urd was waiting for him there. This time, however, she was dressed in a simple pair of shorts and a t-shirt, immediately warning Keiichi to the possibility of a trap.

He took a breath. "Hey, Urd. Um..."

She held up a hand. "Keiichi, before you start, I need to say something, and it's really... really... difficult for me, okay?" At his silent nod, she went on. "I'm sorry, all right?" she said. "I shouldn't be... teasing you... while you go through this, okay? So... I was thinking... let's just concentrate on having fun while we're here."

He smiled in relief. "Thanks, Urd. I'm working on it. Really, I am. I just... Just give me a little more time, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay. So... I was thinking, we get free dinners at the resort restaurant. What do you say we go out tonight and you can practice your dance moves."

Keiichi chuckled.

"What?" Urd demanded. "I like the fact that you can dance at least a little." She smirked.

He nodded. "You know what? That sounds great. Let's do it."

"Great!" Urd said with a grin. "I brought your suit."

He blinked at the revelation. "How? We drove the bike here."

She winked and walked outside, down the steps to where the 1300 was sitting. She popped the latch on the tiny cargo compartment on the back and opened it. "I made a few mods before I gave it to you," she said. Then, without preamble, she reached down into the compartment...

All the way down to her shoulder.

"Pretty cool, huh?" she asked. "I lined the compartment with a bag of holding. You can fit anything in here that will get through the compartment hatch."

As a man who's battled the obscene lack of cargo space on motorcycles, Keiichi was seriously impressed.

"So..." Urd went on, reaching into the compartment again. She pulled out his suit and handed it to him, folded and pressed. "For you."

"Thanks," he said, taking the garment from her.

"So," she began after a moment. "What's the pad for?"

"Huh?" he asked, thrown for a second. "Oh! I ... um... need to write someone a letter."

"Ah," she replied with a nod. "Well, have fun. I think I'm going to change and go for a swim."

He watched her walk off and chewed the inside of his cheek as his eyes fell to her rear. Yeah, he was conflicted, but he wasn't made of stone.

888

Keiichi sat down at the small marble table that sat next to a tiny reflecting pool behind the cabin. He tapped the notepad with his pen and tried to find the best way to begin.

_Dear..._

He stopped and tore the page out. There's no reason to be cliche here. Just start at the beginning...

Keiichi growled, not sure how to begin.

_This is stupid!_ he thought to himself.

_It's not stupid,_ he thought back. _It's something you gotta do. Just... just talk about what happened and why..._

He took a breath and put pen to paper.

888

Keiichi checked himself in the mirror, feeling more than a little accomplished. He adjusted his purple necktie and took a breath. Once he started, he found the words he was looking for. After that, it was easy. He smiled, feeling more sure about where he stood than he had since he first got together with Urd.

He felt bad about the whole thing to be honest. What he had done the last two days was basically lead Urd on. He didn't want her to feel bad, like she was second to Belldandy's memory. It was just hard for him to get in the right place, but he thought he was getting there. He was going to have to make it up to Urd. He resolved to make sure that he found a way to give her the most romantic night of her life at some point in the near future.

The young man looked through his toiletry bag, searching for some breath mints, and instead found a glass vial filled with amber liquid. He popped the top and took a sniff, nodding in approval of the cologne's scent. He didn't remember buying it, but then again that wasn't strange. Someone bought him cologne for Christmas almost every year so half his medicine cabinet at home was different brands of scent. Someone even got him a bottle of Hai Karate once. When he was packing for the trip he must have packed the vial without thinking.

He splashed some on his neck and looked himself over in the mirror one last time.

"Keiichi! You ready?"

"Yeah! I'm coming!"

888

Urd snagged her purse as Keiichi stepped into the living room. She watched the expression on his face change to surprised happiness, and it should. She was wearing the same red dress she had worn when she played his song.

_That night turned out nothing like I thought it would,_ she thought. Her utterance of his name totally derailed the plans she had toyed with about where the night would lead. Of course, in hindsight, it was probably a good thing. The last thing she wanted was to shout "TRUCK MONSTER MONKEY CLOCK!" in the throes of passion.

The thought made her smile, and the memory warmed her, and his smile thrilled her. "You ready?" she asked gamely.

He searched frantically for something cool to say, but gave up.

"Yeah," he said simply.

She flashed him a grin and started for the door, unwilling to let the moment get out of control and undermine the promise she made earlier. He followed a moment later, grabbing his keys off the counter as he made for the door.

Outside, she waited for him to mount the bike before hopping on sidesaddle behind him. She rested her hands on his shoulders and leaned in close as the engine turned over.

The goddess blinked as a momentary light-headedness came over her. She shook her head to dismiss the feeling as the bike moved and the wind began to caress her face. The feeling passed, and she smiled.

It was going to be a wonderful night.

888

A waitress found them a booth in the corner of the softly-lit dining room and offered to take their drink orders. There were plenty of other people in the restaurant, mostly couples, but not so many that it was loud or crowded.

Rather than sit across from him, Urd scooted in beside him, taking her drink with her. She blinked as another wave of dizziness came over her, but she quickly shook it aside.

"So what do you think is good here?" Keiichi asked as he looked over the menu.

"It's the beach," Urd told him, resting her hand on his arm. "Try the seafood."

"What are you going to get?" he asked.

She moved closer and, inspired, turned and kissed him fiercely.

Keiichi made a surprised "Mmmph!" sound and managed to break away from the goddess. "Moving kind of fast tonight, aren't we?" he asked.

Urd reached up and put her hands on either side of his head. "Don't tease," she scolded before moving in again.

The mortal pulled away, and the goddess pursued.

"I gotta hit the bathroom," he said, leaving the seat as the goddess lunged forward, missing and landing head-first on the leather bench.

The young man made a quick exit, heading for the bathroom. He wasn't sure what to make of Urd's behavior. She had said, after all, they were going to take things slow, and now she was even more aggressive than before.

He passed a table where another couple sat, having to turn and slide past the woman's chair. The two were arguing about something, and Keiichi counted his blessings. His problem was that a beautiful woman wanted to make out with him. At least Urd wasn't pissed at him... yet.

_Man up, Keiichi_, he thought. _I thought you were over this..._

_I am... sort of..._

He checked for a tent and washed his hands, taking a breath.

888

Urd shook her head and took a few deep breaths. What the hell had come over her? Didn't she _just_ say that she was going to give him time to get over his issues? What the hell was she doing?

_You're a love goddess, for the Almighty's sake!_ she thought. _Show a little restraint! Can you really be so in love that his very presence impassions you? Really? You're that easy?_

She fanned herself. The goddess actually felt warmer.

_Now then,_ she thought. _Just relax and try to control yourself... It's just Keiichi..._

Urd looked up as she caught sight of the mortal making his way back to their table. He slid past a couple that was mauling one another like they hadn't seen each other in years, and she blinked. She could have sworn she saw them fighting a few moments ago...

He smiled and sat back down next to her. "Waitress come back?" he asked.

"Not yet," she replied, quickly looking away and grabbing a menu. That light-headed feeling was back, and she took a breath.

"Oh," he said. "So... what do you think?"

She wasn't really aware why she was doing what she was doing, but the goddess turned and practically crawled into his lap.

"I think your first time _could_ be in the cloak room of a very nice restaurant," she whispered to him.

Keiichi blushed fiercely. "Um... Um..."

"Um... is everything okay?" the waitress asked, returning at what she suddenly realized was a very inopportune time.

"Everything but the interruption!" Urd shot over her shoulder.

"Oh," the waitress replied, fingering the collar of her shirt. "I'm sorry... I'll... Um..." Her hand went to her head to combat a sudden bout of vertigo. "Um... I'll come back..."

"Later," Urd finished for her, shooing the poor girl away.

"Right!" The waitress turned and dashed off.

Urd turned back to him. "Now... where were we?"

"Look, Urd, don't get me wrong, this is very hot, but..."

"Give me a chance, Keiichi," she whispered. "And I will _haunt your dreams_."

Keiichi swallowed, thrown for a moment. "Ah," he said inconclusively.

He jumped as he felt the goddess's hand on his leg start moving upward.

"Don't be shy," she whispered. "And don't be nervous. I'm a love goddess. I'll teach you to be the greatest lover Earth has ever known..."

They were interrupted just before Urd's hand could reach its destination by the sound of breaking plates. Looking up, they found their waitress deeply frenching a busboy... who only made a token effort at resisting.

Urd quickly turned back to Keiichi and grinned, her earlier thoughts of restraint totally abandoned. She was flushed, and she couldn't slow her breathing to save her life. Every nerve ending in her body was tingling. "Come on, Maverick," she panted. "Take me to bed or lose me forever."

"We're in public!" he whispered back frantically.

"Everyone in this dining room is making out but us!" she hissed at him.

Keiichi blinked and took a quick look past his girlfriend. It seemed to be true. Almost every patron around them was kissing their date or quickly making for the exit arm-in-arm.

"And you don't think that's weird?" he asked.

Urd's expression hardened and she quickly moved off him, sitting on the other side of the bench.

"This is about her, isn't it?" she demanded.

Keiichi blinked, aware that this whole situation had quickly turned surreal.

"What? No!"

Urd's hands clenched into fists, her passion rapidly transforming itself into anger. "You're keeping the door open, aren't you?"

"What door?"

"That's it, isn't it?" she demanded, turning to face him. "You don't want to go all the way because on some level you think Belldandy is going to show up tomorrow, and then it'll be too late."

"Urd," he whispered.

She wiped a tear away. "If you just want someone to wait on you and tell you how wonderful you are until Belldandy gets back, then you got the wrong woman, Keiichi Morisato!" she growled, rising to her feet.

"Urd! Wait!"

She didn't listen to him, storming out of the restaurant and into the fresh night air. The moment the cool sea air hit her face, she felt her vertigo steady.

"What the hell just happened in there?" she asked herself aloud. She didn't really know. Looking back, she honestly couldn't understand how the last five minutes just happened.

Something was going on. She might have a reputation as being a little loose, but she wasn't _that_ loose. She almost went back inside, but stopped herself.

_How are you going to look him in the eye after that?_ she asked herself. _What would you say?_

She kept walking. The goddess needed time to figure out what was happening. Until then... she didn't want to face him.

_A love god maybe?_ she wondered. _One of those stupid "love avengers" that Aphrodite sics on the world whenever she gets drunk and/or bored?_

But that didn't make any sense. Love avengers only attacked scorned love, and even if she could describe Keiichi's emotional hesitation toward the physical as "scorned," what were the odds that a love avenger would strike _them_?

She picked up the pace and made it back to the cabin in record time. Whatever this was it had affected her, not Keiichi. Rushing to the bathroom, she threw open her travel bag and removed a pair of rubies the size of robins eggs. Rubbing them together, she placed them on the sink as they began to glow, allowing the red light they shed to bathe her.

The goddess stepped back out of the light and looked over herself, her skin now glowing red. She quickly removed her dress and checked her body for glowing blue or green points that might indicate a shot from a dart or a bite from a love-bug, but her entire body glowed only red. She continued searching until the glow faded, certain that she had to have been hit by something.

But there was nothing.

She looked in the mirror. Her eyes were dilated and her skin was coated with a thin sheen of sweat. What the hell was it? She tapped the countertop as she reviewed the night in her mind. It wasn't just her. Every woman in the restaurant seemed affected.

Her eyes fell to the countertop and found a small vial there. It looked like one of the vials she kept potions in, but she hadn't brought any potions with her. She popped the top and took a single, careful sniff.

Immediately, it as if her body was on fire. Her hand went to her chest, and her breath came in rapid gasps. Biting her lip hard to try to offset the feelings with pain, she managed to find enough self control to replace the stopper.

Safe from the fumes of the potion, she took several deep breaths. She hit the faucet and quickly doused her face with cold water.

When her body stopped shivering in want, she looked up in the mirror and growled. "Keiichi, you blockhead..."

888

Keiichi let the bike coast down the hill, the ocean on his left, as he tried to figure out what to think about what had just happened. He didn't stay long at the restaurant. At first, he wanted to give Urd some time, figuring perhaps she'd come back after some air. But after ten minutes of watching other people make out, he got the hint and left.

She wasn't outside getting air. Taking a deep breath, he got on the bike, picked a direction and started to cruise.

_Okay, what's your problem?_ he asked himself. _Seriously._

He didn't know. That was the problem. At first, he thought it was not being able to completely break from Belldandy. But could there be something else?

Maybe that final step?

He brought the bike to a stop at a T-section.

Could that be it? It was, after all, a big deal in his eyes though every other guy he ever met treated it like it was nothing. If things went to that level, it would be the farthest he'd ever been in a relationship. It meant Urd wasn't his girlfriend... or even his friend... anymore. She would be his lover.

What if they did it and she decided it wasn't any good?

What if she got pregnant?

_She can't get pregnant unless she wants to,_ his brain reminded him. _Jesus, you're the only guy on earth who _doesn't_ have that problem._

It _means_ something, though, doesn't it?

_Yeah, it means you love Urd. Deal._ _It's not just your feelings here. How do you think it feels to be rejected like that because you can't get over your ex?_

It probably felt horrible, he knew.

Maybe even horrible enough to hop through a TV and leave...

Gunning the engine, Keiichi hung a u-turn and zipped off for the cabin.

888

He threw the front door open and rushed inside.

"Urd?" he called out. "Are you here?"

The pilot heard the water running in the bathroom and breathed a sigh of relief. He stepped toward the bathroom door and gently knocked on it.

"Hey, Urd?" he called through the door. "Listen... um... I just want to say..."

Before he could finish, the door shot open, and a well-endowed female figure in a black, skin-tight rubber suit and a gas mask pulled him inside.

Totally thrown by the turn in events, Keiichi did the only thing he could.

He screamed like a little bitch.

Before he could react, the rubber-clad Darth Vader woman ripped his clothes off and pushed him into the tub. He caught a glimpse of a silvery pony-tail and realized it was Urd.

"URD!" he cried. "What the..."

The goddess pushed him under the water, giving Keiichi a moment to collect his thoughts:

1. Urd had lost her mind.

2. His girlfriend was into some _really_ kinky stuff.

3. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be turned on right now or not.

His head broke the surface just as the scrub brush came down and started rasping against the skin on his shoulders.

"HEY! HEY! Stop it! What the hell are you doing?" he cried, squirming away from her.

The masked figure that was his deranged girlfriend held up a familiar vial.

"Is this yours?" she asked, her voice muffled by the gas mask.

He looked at her as if she were nuts. "Yeah?" he replied uncertainly.

"And did you wear this tonight?" she asked as he water began to slowly still around them.

"Yeeeeeaaaaah?" Keiichi drawled out slowly.

He could see Urd roll her eyes behind the mask. "And do you remember who gave this to you?"

"Well... no," Keiichi replied, wondering when he'd start getting answers instead of giving them.

"_I_ gave it to you, dummy!" she declared. "For your date with Kiyoshi! Remember? 'In Heat?' For when things were going well?"

Keiichi felt his heart rush up into his throat. "And the fact that I'm wearing it makes you jealous?" he asked nervously.

The goddess tried rubbing her temples through the rubber of the mask. "Keiichi, I made this! What does that tell you?"

The mortal sighed. "That it's not really cologne," he concluded.

"Bingo!" She held the vial up again. "It's a pheromone-based aphrodisiac mixed with lovebug venom!"

"You mean a love potion," Keiichi summed up, folding his arms over his chest and oblivious to the fact that he was sitting in the tub in his skivvies.

"I mean a _lust_ potion," she corrected. "It emphasizes pre-existing sexual desire."

"Great," Keiichi bit out sarcastically. "You gave me roofy gas."

"It's not supposed to be this potent!" Urd told him. "It's just supposed to put a girl in the mood. But you have to use it the day it's mixed because it ferments! And as it ferments, it gets stronger... about double every month. How long ago was that date?"

Keiichi winced as he did the math in his head. "Three years or so..."

"This stuff will turn every girl who gets a whiff of you into a mewling sex kitten!" Urd chastised him.

He sucked in a breath through clenched teeth as he remembered the orgy he left at the restaurant.

Urd sighed and raised the brush, but Keiichi snagged it with his hand. "I got it," he whispered.

The goddess locked eyes with him for a moment before nodding.

"I'm sorry," he said softly as she climbed out of the tub.

She nodded and walked out of the bathroom, leaving him to scrub the remaining cologne from his skin. She disappeared into her room and changed into a purple silk nightgown before reappearing again, loosening her hair from the ponytail and taking a seat at the dining room table.

The goddess shook her head wearily before looking up into the eyes of her angel.

World of Elegance looked like she was trying to hold back the giggles. She made a valid point to her mistress, one Urd was feeling too much self-pity to accept just yet.

"It is _not_ funny!" Urd told her. "I tried, okay? I tried to do the right thing! And what happens?"

Elegance answered her with a grin and a shrug.

"Well... yes, an orgy, but I was talking about totally blowing it."

The angel grinned.

Urd tried desperately not to smile. "That's all you have to say?" she asked. "'Bow chicka bow wow?'"

Elegance started to give her another, but Urd beat her to it. "'That's what _he_ said!'" She started to laugh. "Okay, I guess it's a _little_ funny."

"Hey."

They looked up and found Keiichi standing in the hallway in a pair of black shorts and a t-shirt. His hair was still damp, and he was running his fingers through it in his nervous way.

"Hey," she replied. Elegance gave her a final smile and made her exit, leaving the two of them alone.

He approached and took a seat across the table from her.

"Look," she began before he could open his mouth. "I'm sorry... about the things I said... It's not true." She swallowed and continued. "That stuff... it's like a drug, and when you can't get your... um... 'fix'... it messes with your head. I don't really think that stuff... I..."

"Urd, I know, and I'm sorry," he cut her off. For the first time, she noticed something in his hand...

_Bow chicka bow wow!_

_Elegance! Knock it off!_ she silently snapped at the angel giggling at her in her mind.

It was a folded piece of note paper that the young man tapped against the table-top as if unsure of what to do with it.

"What's that?" she asked quietly.

"Remember," he began slowly, "How you said I had to come to terms with what to say to Belldandy? I wrote a letter."

"To Belldandy?" Urd asked. "I don't think Hild is going to let you deliver it..."

"It's not to Belldandy," he told her. "It's to me."

"You?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Well... Future Me," he explained. "I was working on it all day. I want you to know what's in it..."

"Keiichi, you don't have to..."

"I do," he interrupted. "Because... well... Just listen." He opened the paper and cleared his throat. "'Dear Stupid,'" he began.

"You're not on very good terms with yourself, are you?" Urd asked.

"Hush," he replied. "'If you're reading this letter, it means that somehow Belldandy has come back, and you're wondering what to tell her. Maybe even you're not sure how to feel. Maybe over however long it's been, you've forgotten why you've done the things you've done.'"

Urd listened patiently, searching for some warning sign in his words.

"'If one of those things or all of those things have happened, I want you to remember... that you fell in love with your best friend. That in the seven or however many years you've known her, you've always been able to trust her. She's saved your life, and you've saved hers. You've grown together, and even now, only a few weeks into my relationship with her, I don't think I could bear not being with her. And I know no matter what you think you're feeling now, deep down, you feel the same way. If Hild suddenly appeared and took Urd the way she took Belldandy, I'm not sure how I could go on.'"

The goddess looked down at the table, moved by the words.

"'Tell Belldandy...'" He paused for a moment. "'Tell Belldandy that you hurt her, and that you're sorry you hurt her, but never ever apologize for falling in love with Urd. You wouldn't be what you are today if it weren't for how you feel about her and how she feels about you. Those feelings helped shape your life. And no matter what happens, they'll always be there in the background.'"

He broke off and swallowed before looking up at her. "That's all I got to," he said softly. "Urd, I love you. It wasn't until after you left the restaurant tonight and I started to think you might just leave that I realized that there are no more steps. I mean... no matter what we do or where we go from here... I don't think anything could ever change how I feel about you."

She reached across the table as he folded the letter up, and she took his hand.

"Keiichi Morisato," she whispered, "Sif once told me that maybe Destiny arranged for Belldandy to grant your wish because it was the only way to get me down here and meet you. I never thought that might be true until just now." She shook her head and smiled. "How dare you?" she asked. "How dare you make me feel this way?"

He bit his lip nervously. "Um... what you said back at the restaurant," he began quietly, just above a whisper as if afraid someone else would hear. "About teaching me to be the greatest lover in the world..."

She arched an eyebrow. "Under the stipulation that I'm the only woman you ever sleep with," she amended.

Keiichi swallowed and took a nervous breath. "That... that sounds like a fair deal."

The goddess stood up and leaned over the table, kissing him gently. She took his hand in hers. "Come on," she whispered. "It's okay to be nervous the first time, and I'll take care of you."

He nodded and followed her into the bedroom.

888

"That letter is in a sealed envelope in a little shoe box in the back of his closet," Urd told Sif. "And he hasn't opened it since. I take that to mean that he doesn't _need_ to read it. And if he's not going to apologize for how he feels, I'm sure as hell not going to either."

Sif smiled. "Nor should you."

"I never had to write a letter," Urd told her. "But I did spend a lot of time thinking of what I would say."

"And what's that?"

The doorbell rang, drawing their attention away from the blonde's question.

"Just a sec," Urd told her with a smile. She rose from her seat and went to the door.

888

"Home?" Keiichi asked. "You mean Heaven?"

Belldandy nodded, wiping a tear from her eye. "Keiichi san, you're happy. Even though I didn't have a hand in that... that was my mission. And that mission is over now. You're happy, your wish has been granted."

"Belldandy," he whispered.

"Hey!"

They both jumped at the sound of the hail. Turning, Belldandy's face lit up.

"Skuld!"

The goddess was amazed at the sight of her "little" sister, who now was at least as tall as Urd. The raven-haired woman leapt forward and hugged her.

"I missed you so much, Oneesama!" Skuld cried, wiping a tear away from her eye. "It's so good to have you home again!"

"Oh, Skuld!" Belldandy cried. "I'm so sorry! I missed everything! You're so... so..."

"Grown up?" Keiichi offered with a smile.

"Hai!" Belldandy agreed.

Skuld gave Keiichi a semi-bitter look and turned all business. "Hey, Keiichi," she said briskly. "Sif says check your messages."

"Sif's here?" Keiichi asked.

"Sif is here?" an accented voice asked from the vending area.

Skuld turned and found Mischa walking toward them.

"Forgive please," the Russian said. "I am just curious."

"Yeah," Skuld said. "She's at the temple." She turned back, intent on not giving the Russian mortal another thought. She smiled at Belldandy. "There's so much I want to tell you."

Keiichi suddenly felt like an intruder in his own story. He chucked a thumb toward the hallway. "I'm gonna go check my messages," he said. "You two catch up."

The pilot walked away, and Skuld grimaced. "I'm sorry," she told her sister. "They had no right to hurt you like that. Looking back, I should have stuck around just to keep them apart."

"Skuld chan," Belldandy chastised quietly. "That's not fair. They fell in love."

"Whatever," Skuld replied. She threw on a smile. "So what are you going to do?"

Belldandy cast her gaze downward. "Go home."

"Really?" Skuld asked. "This is great! Mom's kept your job at the Help Line open! We can live together! It'll be great!"

"Hai," Belldandy agreed woodenly.

"Things have changed a lot in Heaven!" Skuld gushed. "You won't believe it!"

"I'm sure," the Norn replied.

"So when do you want to leave?" Skuld asked.

"I'd like to say goodbye to Neesan first," Belldandy said.

"Well, let's get Keiichi and go," Skuld urged excitedly.

"Hai," Belldandy agreed obediently. "I'll get him." She broke away and started down the hall toward Keiichi's office. She understood her younger sister was happy. She just kind of wished she'd understand how she felt right now.

She turned the corner and poked her head into the mortal's office. They'd go back to the temple, maybe have one last dinner together as a family, and then she'd leave... and leave them alone.

"Keiichi san?" she asked. She paused as she heard her best friend's voice on the answering machine.

"...it's Sif. Ameko is in Nekomi. I don't know why, but she spoke to Urd. I don't think she knows who or what she is, but it can be nothing good. Please call me as soon as you get this. I fear you all may be in terrible danger!"

"Keiichi san?" Belldandy asked again, confused by the message.

Keiichi stood there, his back to her. The goddess heard him whisper a single, haunted word.

"Bonejackers."

Belldandy blinked. The word was vaguely familiar. "Keiichi san?"

He turned to her and swallowed fearfully. Rushing forward, he grabbed her hand and dragged her down the hall, his other hand dialing his cell phone.

"What's going on?" Belldandy cried.

"_Hello! You've reached the goddess Sif! I'm afraid you've called while I'm out on assignment, but if you leave your name, number and a brief message, I'll call you back just as soon as I can! Thank you! And have a blessed day!"_

Keiichi swore under his breath, ignoring the goddess's question as he dialed another number. "Dammit, Sif," he hissed. "Why would you leave a message like that and then turn off your phone?"

The obvious answer hit him as the number to the temple didn't even ring.

"_We're sorry. The number you dialed is no longer in service..._"

He looked down at his phone in silent horror. "Come on!" he ordered, practically dragging her through the hangar.

Skuld caught sight of them and blinked. "Hey! What's going on?"

"We have to get to the temple!" Keiichi called to her in return. "Right now! Urd and Sif are in trouble!"

"How do you know this?" Belldandy asked, as they emerged into the daylight covering the parking lot.

Keiichi unlocked the BMW, and the two goddess hopped in, Belldandy taking the seat next to him. He started the car and threw it quickly into gear.

"That message about Ameko," Keiichi said quickly as he backed out of the parking space and gunned the engine.

"Who _is_ Ameko?" Belldandy asked.

"She's a Bonejacker," Keiichi answered quickly, and the questioning look in the goddess's eyes made him realize that for the first time since they met, he knew something about Heaven and Hell the Norn didn't. "Like... like..." He searched for a good comparison as he turned onto the main street. "Like Lind... only a demon... and... worse..."

"A demon?" Skuld cried.

"Well... kind of," Keiichi admitted. He turned his head to address her. "It's kind of hard to ex..."

Before he could finish the word something landed on the hood of the car with enough force to flip the BMW into the air, shattering the windows and collapsing the front end as if it were made of cheap plastic.

Keiichi didn't even have time to think before the vehicle landed on its right side and tumbled down the street, finally coming to a stop near an embankment.

His eyes fluttered as he came to, and cried out as pain shot up and down his left arm. The car had come to a rest right side up, his door swinging open like a broken limb. He reached around and undid his seatbelt with his right hand and fell out of the car, his left arm erupting in agony as he landed on it.

He coughed and kicked out with his foot, pushing himself away from the car and bracing his back against the embankment next to the front right tire. The pilot searched the car for Belldandy and Skuld, and found the older of the sisters fumbling with her seatbelt, disoriented by the crash. He couldn't see Skuld, but from his angle, that wasn't surprising.

Keiichi tried to climb to his feet, but a wave of nausea overcame him and he bent over, puking up blood.

_That's certainly not good,_ he thought, surprised at how casual the thought was. He coughed again and looked up to find what had landed on their car walking toward him without a care in the world.

The violet-haired woman stood over him and gave him a nod.

Keiichi took a few deep breaths. "Nice to see you again, Ameko," he got out painfully.

She nodded again. "Morisato kun," she greeted. "I hope you'll forgive me in this, but my orders are quite explicit."

"What do you want?" he croaked.

"I'm to keep you from returning to the temple," Ameko told him.

"Why?"

"I'm not at liberty to say," the Bonejacker told him.

"Don't bullshit me, Ameko," Keiichi growled with a cough. "I saved your life!"

"And I saved yours," she replied coolly, circling him like a jaguar ensnaring her prey. "This is nothing personal, Morisato kun. Merely orders."

He bit his lip, enraged. "What is she doing?" he demanded. "God damn her! We had a deal!"

"Quite," Ameko admitted.

"Keiichi san!"

They both turned and found Belldandy leaping over the car, landing next to the mortal and turning to face Ameko.

"Leave him alone!" Belldandy ordered with more than a little menace in her voice. "What do you want?"

"Simple," Ameko answered. "To keep him from Urd's side."

"Good luck," Keiichi bit out. "The System Force won't stand for that."

"The System Force is already in play," Ameko told him. "You just don't know it yet."

Before she could go on, she was suddenly set upon by what looked like ten thousand pink insects, fluttering around her and attaching themselves to the demon's skin.

Ameko thrashed about, trying to dislodge them, but they refused to budge. Working hard to focus his eyes, Keiichi suddenly realized they weren't insects at all but rose petals.

"Quick! Run!"

They looked up and found Skuld standing on the other side of the demon, her hands outstretched as she focused the spell on Ameko.

"Hurry up!" she said.

"Skuld!" Belldandy cried.

"Get out of here, Oneesama! I got this!"

Belldandy gently but urgently touched Keiichi, and the man found himself floating a foot above the ground. "No! Wait!" he cried. "Skuld, you can't!"

"She ain't so tough!" Skuld bragged.

"Skuld!" Before he could say another word, Belldandy picked up the BMW's dislodged side mirror and touched the glass with her fingers. A moment later, the goddess and the mortal were gone. The mirror fell to the concrete and shattered.

Skuld smirked. "Ppphhhht!" she remarked. "Yeah, you're _real_ tough, aren't ya?" she asked the struggling, pink-coated demon.

There was a sudden crack and a shockwave that threw the Norn to the ground. The car, the ground and the embankment were coated with a pink spray, and Ameko stood there, practically untouched.

"Uh oh," Skuld amended her earlier remark.

Ameko's hand shot up, some kind of weapon clutched in her fingers, and Skuld dove across the car as arcs of red lights tore up the concrete and gouged chunks of metal from the BMW's frame.

The Norn ducked behind the car's tire as Ameko destroyed a tiny piece of the world around her.

"I'm not supposed to kill those two," she heard the demon explain. "But you're just collateral damage. I can kill you as many times as I can."

Skuld ducked again as the fire increased. She looked around desperately for a way out. But while her sister could jump through a conveniently placed mirror, she needed hot water to travel...

And there was none of that here.

"Dammit, Keiichi," she growled... but fearfully... "This is your stupid fault!"

_To Be Continued..._

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

This ends the second "season" of Haloes. From this point on, the story takes a much darker turn. I want to thank all of you for reading and particularly WillZ and SethraK for prereading for me. Thanks to you, this story has more than 54,000 hits and more than 400 reviews. Thank you for readin.

Davner


	34. And His Foes Shall Be

Disclaimer: Not mine.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 34**

**And a Man's Foes Shall Be They of His Own Household**

"Just a sec," Urd said, rising to get the door. She left Sif at the table and walked down the hall, wondering who it would be. Most likely Megumi. She turned the knob and opened the door...

And froze.

"Hi, Sweetie!" Hild gushed, leaning over and kissing her daughter on the cheek before pushing inside. Once in the house, she turned and held her arms out for a hug.

Urd grit her teeth in sheer fury. "You," she whispered. "You have a lot of nerve coming here..." She called a spark of lightning to her hand. "A _lot_..."

Hild took a breath and shook her head. "Really, Hon..." She snapped her fingers, and the lightning in Urd's hand evaporated into nothingness. "I haven't even done anything yet. At least give me the _opportunity_ to piss you off before you come out with the violent tendencies."

"What do you want?" Urd growled. "You know you're not welcome here. I don't know how much more clear I have to make it!"

The demonic queen held up a finger as she walked down the hall toward the kitchen. "I am your mother," she noted. "And as such, believe it or not, I _do_ know what's best for you on some occasions..."

"I want you gone!" the Norn hissed. "After everything you've done..."

"Yes, yes," Hild replied somewhat wearily. "After everything you _think_ I've done and everything you don't even know I did..." She entered the kitchen, her daughter right on her heels. She saw two cups of tea on the table and arched an eyebrow. "You have a guest?" she asked... trying to sound casual.

"Sif just left," Urd told her, instinctively covering for her friend, who must have heard Hild and escaped. She didn't know why for certain, but if Sif felt she had to leave quickly, then Urd trusted her. "I was just cleaning up."

"Ah," Hild replied, taking the seat Sif had abandoned. She smiled at her daughter. "How's the little one doing?" she asked. "I heard it's a boy this time. A little prince. You must be excited."

"Thrilled," Urd bit out from between clenched teeth. "And don't you dare call him that. I told you; my children will have _nothing_ to do with you."

"Oh, come on!" Hild cried in exasperation. "I did what you wanted! I let Belldandy go! Can't we just start fresh?"

"Start fresh?" Urd breathed. "After what you did..."

"What you _think_ I did," the queen corrected again. "And I will note that you are _the only_ person who thinks it... Even Keiichi has vouched for me," she added.

"Leave him out of this!" Urd hissed. "He doesn't know you like I do. He doesn't understand the things I do."

"He understand quite a bit more than you think," Hild told her. She took a breath. "Aren't you going to offer me something to drink?"

Urd leaned over the table until she was eye-to-eye with her mother. "I wouldn't piss in your mouth if you were dying of thirst," she whispered hatefully.

"I was thinking maybe tea or something," Hild confessed.

"Why are you here?" Urd demanded again.

"I'm waiting for a phone call," Hild told her, checking her watch. "After I get it, you're going to pack your things, and you and I are going on a little trip."

"Excuse me?"

"For your own safety," Hild elaborated. "I'm taking you back to the Demon Realm with me."

888

Belldandy, Keiichi's body pressed against her own as she flew, wound through the netherworld of her travel medium, searching for a good place to reappear. The mirror they had come through had shattered after they left, leaving her with no way to return to Skuld, and her heart beat with fear at what her little sister might be facing.

Likewise, for some reason, the mirrors at the temple were blocked. Not broken, just blocked. It was odd.

She closed her eyes and tried to think of a place where she could be safe, where she always felt safe...

There! She picked the mirror out of a million others and dashed through it...

And landed on a concrete floor in a dark, musty room, a cloud of dust filling the room at their impact. She heard Keiichi scream in pain as he landed on his broken arm. He rolled onto his back, struggling to breathe.

The goddess took a moment to survey their location. Looking up, she saw the mirror they had emerged from, the side mirror attached to a familiar motorcycle that had been covered by a tarp.

She smiled at it. "The Beemer... You saved us..." Belldandy looked around and found the Auto Clubhouse familiar but different. Boxes of tools and parts had been stacked throughout the room, and the warm, friendly environment she remembered was now a dusty, dank storage shed.

At the sound of Keiichi's wheezing, she turned her attention back to him, kneeling over him, she reached out and gently touched his right side. He winced, and her fingers reached out, lifting his t-shirt up to look.

The entire right side of his abdomen was a sickly purple, either from bruising or internal bleeding or both. She knew his arm was shattered, and the Almighty One only knew what other injuries he might have sustained.

"You have to go back," he wheezed. She looked up and found his brown eyes boring into her. "Skuld..." He swallowed painfully. "Skuld has no idea what she's dealing with..."

"I trust Skuld to know what she's doing," Belldandy told him quickly, her mind awhirl with concern. She had to start healing him quickly.

"Belldandy," Keiichi began again.

She didn't have time to be gentle. "If I leave now," she said calmly but firmly. "You'll die."

"Urd," he gasped out. "We have to get to her..."

The Norn bit her lip. She agreed with Keiichi, but she was correct about her earlier statement. Keiichi needed to be healed now or he was going to die. And healing him would drain her. She would have to sleep afterward. No matter what she did, the only way to act immediately to save either of her sisters was to let Keiichi die.

She bit her lip and placed her hands on his abdomen, her choice made.

"Belldandy..."

"If I heal you slowly," she began carefully, "It will take less energy. I won't have to regenerate after that. But it will still take time."

"Urd..."

"Neesan can take care of herself," Belldandy cut him off. "And we do not yet know what her situation is. And I will not seek her out only to tell her that her husband is dead."

She opened her consciousness and allowed a trickle of healing energy to flow from her hands and into his body. When she was confident about the connection, she opened it a bit more, as much as she dared. It would take a couple of hours, but she would still be able to stand afterward.

And then what?

She had no idea what had just happened. Even if they were ready to leave now, she wouldn't have any idea of what to do or who to seek out. She needed more information.

"Keiichi san," she breathed as she healed him. "Who was that? What happened back there?"

"That... was Ameko," Keiichi told her. "She's a... friend... sort of..."

"The Bonejacker?" Belldandy asked. "But you said..."

"It's hard to explain," he admitted tiredly.

"Then please give it your best effort," she urged. "I must know what is happening if I'm to help Neesan or Skuld."

He took several deep breaths, and for a moment Belldandy thought he had fallen asleep, but then his voice cut through the darkness again.

"The whole thing started two years after we got together," he began. "A couple of months after we were married..."

_Four years ago..._

"Coming atcha!" Megumi cried as she swung the badminton racket as hard as she could. The little red ball at the tip of the shuttle actually seemed to warp into another dimension of space as it darted over the net.

"Mine.. Mine...MINE!" Keiichi cried as he swung... and missed.

"WOOT!" Megumi cried in victory. She and Toshio shared a high-five. "Mizunos vs. Morisatos is _not_ looking good for the Morisatos!" she taunted.

"Yeah... well... you gotta play to 21, ya know," Keiichi said, picking the shuttle up off the ground.

"We have twenty," Megumi pointed out with a grin, her hands on her hips as her green yukata fluttered around her.

"Yeah... well... you have to win by two," Keiichi shot back.

"You have three," she returned.

"Yeah... well... just shut up and play," he said, tossing the shuttle over the net at her sister. He sidled up to his new wife and grit his teeth. "I don't have a good feeling about this one," he admitted.

"_You_ don't have a good feeling?" Urd asked with an arched eyebrow. "At least you're wearing pants. Try playing this in a yukata..." She glanced at him and grinned evilly. "... and no underwear."

"Time out!" Keiichi called. "I need a minute!"

"Come on, Keiichi!" Sayoko called from the sidelines where she sat next to Teletha. "Just forfeit and give us a turn!"

"Yeah!" Megumi chimed in. "Team Spinster plays winner!"

"HEY!" Sayoko and Teletha cried out at the same time.

Urd rolled her eye and shook her head. "Fine! We give!"

"And _still_ champions of the New Years badminton tournament," Toshio began. "The Mizunos!"

Keiichi and Urd sat down in the seats just vacated by Sayoko and Teletha. They simultaneously threw a look to Shin and Sachiko, who were playing "together" in the sandbox Keiichi had built for them a year ago.

"You need to step up your game," Urd told him. "You're making me look bad out there."

"You're admitting to looking bad?" Keiichi asked with a smile.

"Never," Urd replied. She threw another look to Shin and Sachiko. "You think now that I'm an old married woman, I'm just going to let my looks go?"

"Well, I was thinking of growing a beer gut," Keiichi replied, poking her in the ribs.

"You do and this marriage is over," she told him. "Remember, I married you for your looks."

Before he could retort, they heard Sachiko start to cry. Their heads whipped around, and they heard Megumi call out to her.

"Sachiko chan? Honey! Are you alright?"

At that precise moment, Teletha smacked the shuttle right at Megumi's feet.

"Totally ninja!" Teletha cried triumphantly.

"Time out!" Megumi called as she joined Keiichi and Urd at the sandbox. Urd was looking over her niece and smiling.

"Did you get sand in your eyes, Honey?" she asked.

Sachiko nodded and sniffled.

"It's okay," Urd said softly. "Watch this." The goddess blew into her hand and then covered the girl's eye with it. A moment later she removed it, and Sachiko blinked. "All better?" Urd asked.

The two year old smiled and giggled.

Urd smiled back and hugged her. "Okay, back to playing."

"Thanks, Urd," Megumi said quietly, checking over her shoulder to make sure her husband or Teletha didn't see.

"No prob."

Megumi stood up and turned back to the game. "Okay! Do over!"

"Oh, I don't think so!" Sayoko called back.

Keiichi and Urd sat next to the sand box and watched Sachiko and Shin play awhile longer.

"They've gotten so big," Urd whispered.

"Yeah, that happens," Keiichi replied with a smile. "She looks like Megumi did back then."

"I bet," Urd agreed. She was silent for several moments, prompting Keiichi to nudge her.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said quickly. "Just..."

"Just what?"

She bit her lip and then smiled, leaning over so she could talk to him without being overheard. "I was just wondering if... you know... if we were to have a daughter... if she would look like me..."

He cleared his throat, sensing the new depth of the conversation. "I would hope so," he said. "I'd hate to think she'd look like me."

She smiled at the joke but said nothing.

"You know," he said quietly. "We probably should have talked about this before we got married. I mean... well... how do you feel about kids?"

"I'm not cut out to be a good mother," she answered quickly.

He was quiet for a moment. Keiichi had known Urd intimately long enough to know where that was coming from. "I don't think Hild is the mold you're made from in this," he whispered.

"Well... it's not that," Urd said. She looked uncomfortable and decided to just come out with it. "In Heaven... gods and goddesses are very sensitive to the... ramifications of blood."

He got it. "You turned out okay," he said. "As a matter of fact, your demon half is a part of who you are."

"What about you?" Urd asked him. "How do you feel about it?"

The mortal shrugged, but in a way that told her he was only treading carefully rather than from any real ambiguity.

"I'd like kids," he said finally. "I mean don't get me wrong. I'm not pushing for them or anything. You're in a good place in your career right now and..."

"Keiichi," she interrupted gently. "My purpose for being here is to make you happy, and if kids..."

"Stop," he told her softly. "That was Urd, Goddess Second Class, Limited License, talking," he pointed out. "I'm talking about Urd Morisato... my wife... _My_ purpose is to make _her_ happy. What do you think?"

She patted his leg and stood up. "I'm going to inside and check on dinner."

Keiichi watched her walk to the house and disappear inside.

888

Urd pulled the cake from the oven and put to rest on the stovetop. She still wasn't the best cook, nowhere near Belldandy or Sif's level, but even she could follow the directions on the back of a little red box.

Kids. She had never really thought on them before she met Sachiko and Shin, until she saw how they changed the lives of their parents. It was a responsibility, a terrible responsibility, and she had never really cared for responsibility...

But then... she had never sought responsibility before either...

She felt his hands circle her from behind and smiled. "You're supposed to be watching the kids," she chastised him gently.

"The game broke up," he replied, hugging her gently. "Sayoko's got them. I wanted to check on you."

"Check on me?" Urd asked. "I'm fine."

"Just checking," he said. He moved his hands and paused as he felt... or rather didn't... feel something.

"What?" Urd asked slyly. "I told you."

"I thought you were joking," he said quietly.

She grinned. "I don't joke about my underwear, Keiichi," she said.

The goddess felt his body move as he chuckled. "What am I going to do with you?" he asked.

"We could disappear into the bedroom for a half hour," she suggested, turning to face him.

He kissed her forehead, and she closed her eyes. It was amazing how such gentle gestures could leave her so content with her lot in life.

"Come on, Keiichi," she whispered sensuously. "If you're a good boy, I'll grant you a wish."

She leaned forward and caught his lips with hers, kissing him firmly but gently, intent on it being a memorable kiss.

They both heard the footsteps approach but didn't think anything of it until they heard Megumi's voice.

"Dire Straits, Kei chan? Are you kidding me?"

They looked up and found Megumi standing sheepishly in the doorway, holding an old LP in her hand.

"Oh," she said quietly. "Sorry... I was just... looking for some music to put on... and... now... I'm going to just... go..." She turned and ducked out of the kitchen.

Urd sighed. "Who needs kids?" she asked. "We have our own little interruptions."

He shook his head and hugged her again.

888

Sif slowly poked her head around the corner of the house and scanned the courtyard with her blue eyes. It didn't look like Hild had brought any Elites with her, probably wanting to put on a good face for Urd.

She put her back to the wall and thought quickly. Things were starting to fall into place and not in a good way. This wasn't the first time Hild had visited after Urd announced a pregnancy. It was possible she was just here to try to get back in Urd's good graces. That's what happened last time.

Except she brought Ameko with her. And that didn't bode well at all.

Hild was here to follow through on the threat/promise she made to Keiichi. She was here to take Urd away.

And almost as bad as all that would be the _why_ behind it. If Hild was here to take Urd, that meant _they _were back. Despite Hild and Keiichi's best efforts, despite everything they had done, some of _them_ had escaped, and it only took one zealot...

Which explained Ameko. There's only one reason Hild would choose Ameko to accompany her. The Bonejacker had more experience than anyone in killing _them_.

And that meant that Hild wasn't the only danger in the area. She reached for her cell phone and looked at the blank display. She tried turning it on, but got nothing.

Of course Hild would have done something to make sure they couldn't call for help. She bit her lip and whispered the most vile curse she was willing to speak.

"Petticoats and garter belts," she hissed. She bit her lip and thought. She had to keep Urd here and _them_ out.

Her eyes darted back to the courtyard. It was a slim hope, but all she had. She looked up at the house again for movement and, not spotting any, dashed to the center of the courtyard. Kneeling in the center, she slapped at the sand and rocks with her fingers until she found a black mark, a magic burn that no amount of water would ever wash away.

Standing up, she closed her eyes and held her hands down at ground. "_The air spirits hear my prayers, part time and age and show me the marks left here buried, another place, another time, show me what magic was once wrought here..."_

There was a flash of green light, and the sand and rocks blew out from the center of the courtyard revealing the seal she and Skuld had constructed ten years ago.

The goddess gave it a quick check, making sure it was still workable and closed her eyes again. She took several deep breaths, waiting for the chant to come back to her, thinking of the melody of it, and hoping it was enough.

She started to chant, and the seal began to glow. The sky above her rotted in color from a healthy blue to a sickly green. A moment later, she knew it was done. The seal was up. Nothing could come in and not even Hild could leave until it came down. And she was the only one who knew the counterspell.

"What are you doing?"

Her head whipped around in surprised fear.

_Four years ago..._

"Whatcha got there?" Urd asked as she deftly snatched the brochure out of Teletha's hands.

The CEO hopped up from the porch step where she had been sitting and turned to find her employee rifling through the booklet.

Urd arched an eyebrow. "A Chidori's Secret catalogue?" she asked. "You gonna steal some of their ideas?"

"No!" Teletha cried indignantly, snatching the booklet back. She grinned evilly. "I'm taking stock of my new inventory."

"Huh?" Urd asked.

The shorter woman nodded. "As of last night, Whispers began a hostile takeover of Chidori's Secret. In a week, I'll own it. Chidori san will fight, of course... because she's a bitch... but I've had my lawyers and accountants laying the groundwork for this for a year. I'll have her in the unemployment line in no time!"

Urd arched her eyebrow at the petite woman's evil glee. "Um... congratulations?"

"Thank you!" Teletha replied happily. "So, anyway, we have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks. I'm going to want you and the girls to re-model all of this stuff."

"Us?" the Norn asked. "Why? They already did it."

"Yes, but look at them!" Teletha cried, pointing at the magazine. "Like this woman!" she said, pointing out a girl in a gaudy, tie-dyed teddy. "Her waist must be three inches around! And all that make-up makes her look like some kind of goth-emo junkie! And that is _not_ what Whispers is about! We're about sensuality and love... not whoring!"

Urd shrugged. "No problem from me," she said. "But what about the CS models? You just going to fire them?"

Teletha sighed. "No... I'll probably make them wash their faces and eat a couple of cheeseburgers and then give them contracts."

"Awww!" Urd replied jokingly. "You're so sweet!"

"Hmmph! Just be ready to make some money, Urd," the CEO warned her. "Business is looking good for us."

"On that note, I had a question," Urd said, sitting down on the porch next to her. "If I wanted to take some time off in the future, could I do that and still come back to work later?"

"Of course," Teletha told her with a dismissive wave. "How much time were you thinking of taking?"

"About... nine months or so..."

Teletha gasped and looked at her friend happily. "Urd! Are you preg..."

"NO!" Urd cried. "NO! No! No. Noooooooooooooo... No... No... Nononono...NO," Urd replied. She softened a moment later. "But... it's been on my mind lately, and if Keiichi and I decide... I just want to make sure my bases are covered..."

The CEO smiled. "Of course you can have that time off, Urd," she said. "Or..." The wheels in her head started to turn. "Maaaaaybe there's a way you can still work..."

"Yeah, I doubt I'm going to be able to fit into anything in _that_ catalogue," Urd told her, nodding to the CS book in Teletha's hands.

"Pregnancy can be beautiful too, Urd," Teletha told her. "And sexy too. And if I can make money off that, then so help me I shall! Let me think on it a bit."

"Sure, Teletha. I'm game with whatever."

"So, spill!" Teletha cried excitedly. "Are you really thinking of having a baby!"

"Um... well..." Urd began evasively. "Not... Not really... I mean... I don't know." She sighed. "I mean I don't have baby rabies or anything. It's just that... from the beginning, being with Keiichi has opened my eyes to possibilities I never ever considered possible before. I never once considered marriage before him. Or a career. Or kids. Now that I'm with him..." She smiled. "I don't know. It's like all the reasons I had for not wanting those things seem stupid."

Teletha sighed. "I'd love to have a man who could make me feel like that, make me look at the impossible and find that it's within reach."

"He is good for that, I'll admit," Urd told her. She suddenly smiled, a scheming gleam in her eye. "Remind me next time he's in town to introduce you to a friend of mine," she said.

"Oh?" Teletha asked.

"Mm hmm," Urd replied with a nod. "He's a doctor..."

888

Sif covered her chest with her hand and took a breath of relief. "Novikov san!"

"I am sorry," the engineer said with a smile, gesturing with the roses he held in his hand. "I saw you singing and the lights and wanted to say hello." He cleared his throat. "I was in area and just wanted to be dropping by."

Sif turned, hearing the backdoor open, and grabbed Mischa's hand, dragging him into the stand of trees nearby.

"Quickly!" she whispered. "This way!"

"Oh, I see," Mischa said as Sif dragged him to the ground behind some bushes. "Away from the prying eyes, da?"

"Hai!" Sif agreed quickly.

"Out in nature," Mischa said, undoing the button on his shirt. "With only the birds and bees to see..."

"I don't see anything," Sif whispered, looking through the bushes.

"I am not done yet," Mischa explained, working on his shirt.

Sif bit her lip. She didn't see Hild anywhere.

"Playing hide and seek?" she heard behind her.

Sif squeaked in surprise and turned to find Hild standing there, her arms folded over her chest.

"Ah!" Mischa said, rising to his feet. "This is not what it is looking like..."

"Oh?" Hild asked, stepping closer to the two.

"Where is Urd?" Sif demanded.

"She's inside," Hild told her. As if saying her name was a summons, they heard footsteps marching toward them from the other direction and turned to find a very pissed-off Norn coming toward them.

"Urd, honey, look!" Hild said. "It's your friends you said weren't here!"

The Norn seethed silently, unwilling to blow their covers in front of the Russian.

Hild ignored Sif for the moment and focused on the mortal. "I don't think I've met you before," she said.

"I am Mischa Anatoly Novikov," the engineer told her proudly. "I am fighter pilot. And I am angry at Morisawtoe now. I thought he introduced me to all of Urd's sisters."

Hild brightened visibly and hid her lips behind her hand. "Oh, aren't you a charmer?" she said with a slight flush. "No, I'm Urd's mother, Hild."

"I cannot be believing this," Mischa told her. "There is no way you are even day older than her. Maybe twin instead."

The demonic queen giggled. "My, my, my... I like this one, Urd!"

"I am sorry," Mischa said. "I did not know I was intruding in family reunion. Perhaps I should go..."

"NO!" Sif cried. "You mustn't! If you leave the grounds you'll be flung into the netherworld between dimensions!"

The Russian smiled. "You are poetic," he said. "You could just say, 'Mischa, don't go,' and Mischa will not go."

"Mischa," Sif said quietly. "Please don't go."

"Yes!" Hild agreed. "Please stay and have some tea with us. Urd was just about to make us some."

Urd nearly lost her top.

Hild started for the house. "And Goddess Second Class Sif was just about to tell us all a story," she added over her shoulder.

Sif turned white, and Urd blinked in puzzlement.

"You are all poetic," Mischa noted happily. "'Goddess' this and 'netherworld' that. This pleases me."

_Four years ago..._

Urd collapsed against her husband's chest, panting for breath as the physical and emotional shockwaves began to ebb. Moonlight from the window showed enough of Keiichi's face to see that she had had the same effect on him as he had on her. She lowered her lips and kissed his neck, but gently.

She took several deep breaths, her head resting on his chest, and closed her eyes.

"I think we woke the neighbors," Keiichi joked, his voice betraying exhaustion.

Urd smiled. "Good. That means they know our marriage is solid. Should cut down on the rumor mill."

She closed her eyes again, ready to fall asleep on top of him if he didn't complain. The Norn felt his arms surround her, and his hands roam up and down her back.

"My best student," she mumbled.

"Your _only_ student, I hope," Keiichi muttered back.

"I have no need for another," she agreed.

She opened her eyes and saw the diamond in her wedding ring twinkling in the moonlight. The sight made her smile, and her thoughts went back to the events of that afternoon. In the post-ecstasy stupor, she allowed her mind to run free with its fantasies.

The goddess imagined what her son or daughter might look like. If he or she took after her, they'd be tall with silvery hair and perhaps a perpetually mischievous look in their eyes. Or perhaps they'd take after their father in that regard with kind, brown eyes.

She toyed with the idea some more, inching closer and closer to the line...

And why shouldn't they consider it? Desdemona told Keiichi straight out that he would marry a goddess...

Check.

And that goddess would bear him children. Destiny had apparently thought of this already, so why should they not give it serious thought?

_Because of what they would be_...

The thought angered her. That was the old Urd talking. The Urd that had grown up in a place where, despite its reputation for being a paradise, still hosted an undercurrent of bigotry that crashed against you depending on your bloodline.

_They would be one-quarter demon... No god wants demons... not even your own father..._

Keiichi was _not_ Vili. Those labels didn't even register in his mind. He loved Urd for _who_ she was, not what, and he would love his children for _every_ aspect of who and what they were. She was confident in that.

It would have to be sooner rather than later, she knew, once again inching closer to that line. She had millennia, but Keiichi would eventually grow older. He would slow down and eventually... all she would have left of him would be the children they created together, the only way mortals could achieve a form of immortality.

The thought made her hold him tighter, the thought bothering her much more than she thought it would. Of course mortals die. They're called 'mortal' for a reason. And after he was gone, what of her? Back to Heaven? Back to the same life she left behind as if nothing had happened? Could she ever do that?

She felt Keiichi stir below her, a result of her now tight grip on him. "I love you," he whispered sleepily.

The goddess sighed happily. "I love you too," she whispered back.

_Almighty, grant me a child,_ her mind prayed without thought.

And then she felt it. Like a shock of static electricity that had her push up on her hands, her eyes wide.

_Uh oh_, she thought.

"Angel?" she heard Keiichi mumble, blinking his eyes awake. "You okay?"

She swallowed and didn't answer, instead turning her conscious thoughts inward. The search didn't take long. There was definitely another spark of life there, not her own, and not the reflected light of her angel.

"Oh," she whispered. It was the only thing she could think to say.

"Angel?"

Her attention went back to Keiichi's concerned eyes. Slowly, she rolled off of him and looked up at the ceiling.

"Keiichi," she began, biting her lip in thought. "Remember that thing we were talking about earlier?"

"That?" he replied. "Look, seriously, when all you have is a turntable, you're really limited in the kind of music you can listen to, and Dire Straits really wasn't that bad a group..."

"The other thing, Keiichi," she corrected gently, rolling onto her side and putting her hand on his chest.

He thought for a moment, sleep and exhaustion clouding his memory. "You mean when we talked about having kids?" he asked. "Yeah." He yawned. "Why? You wanna talk about it?"

"Um... yeah," Urd replied nervously. "We should really... REALLY... talk about it... now..."

"Okay, shoot," he invited.

"I don't want you to get mad," she began.

"But you don't want kids," Keiichi concluded with a hint of defeat. "I guess I understand. It's okay. Just promise you'll consider it from time to t..."

"I'm not saying that," Urd interrupted.

"So... you do want kids?" Keiichi asked.

"Well... yes, but I'm not saying that either."

Keiichi blinked. "I'm confused," he admitted.

"Keiichi, remember how I said I can only conceive if I wish it so?" she asked.

"Yeah."

She bit her lip and met his gaze with her own. "I... kinda... sorta... maybe... just wished it."

He was silent for several moments. Finally, he said. "Oh."

She licked her lips nervously as she tried to read his expression in the moonlight. "Yeah," Urd replied. "'Oh.'"

More silence.

_Dammit, say something!_ she thought. _Are you happy? Pissed? What?_

"Soooooooo..." Keiichi began. "Does that mean..."

"Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what it means," she interrupted again. "So don't get mad," she begged quickly. "I know when we had that argument about me bringing home that fifty-inch plasma screen TV, I promised to include you in those kind of decisions, but this is a little different, and..."

She broke off as she saw the smile spread across his face. "So, we're going to have a baby?" Keiichi asked quietly.

"Yeah," she whispered, his smile spreading to her. "Yeah, we are."

He rolled onto his side and kissed her, causing her to gasp against his lips. When they finally parted again, Keiichi smiled. She sighed in happy relief, the fear constricting her chest releasing.

"So, you want to start calling relatives now?" he asked. "Or wait till tomorrow?"

"Let's wait," she said, grinning. "I want to celebrate first."

With that she kissed him again and wrapped her arms around him.

888

"!"

Urd held the cell phone away from her ear as her friend squealed on the other end.

"I KNEW IT!" Teletha cried. "I KNEW IT! IKNEW IT! I KNEW IT! You were hinting way too hard to just be thinking about it!"

"Yeah," Urd agreed. "Guess you got me!"

"Oh, congratulations, Urd! I'm so happy for you! What are you hoping for? A boy or girl? Oh! It must be a girl! No offense to Keiichi, but your genes would be wasted on a boy!"

Urd smiled. "I'm sure Keiichi would agree," she said. "Thanks."

"Take as much time as you want," Teletha told her. "I'm working on a couple of ideas, but if you're not interested, that's okay. Give me a call, all right?"

"Sure," Urd told her. "Gotta go. I'll talk to you later."

She hit the end button and turned to find Keiichi doing the same with his. "Megumi says congrats and 'about time.'"

"Teletha said I could take time off, but I don't think I will for awhile," Urd shared.

"So, just curious," Keiichi began. "But I remember you saying that goddesses can 'commune' with their children. Can you..."

She nodded. "Not too much yet, but I know a few things."

"Like what?" he asked.

She stepped forward and embraced him. "Like it's a girl."

"Really?" he asked, holding her a little tighter. "You can tell that already?"

She nodded. "Mmm hmm."

"What else?"

"Not much else," she sighed. "But it's only been about twelve hours. Give it some time." She stepped back and held up the phone. "Who's next?"

"My parents," he said. "And yours."

He said it without thinking and studied her face the moment he realized his faux pas, but she didn't seem affected. "Okay," she said. "I'll call Frigga and that bombastic, sanctimonious jerk-wad she's married to, and you call Keima and..."

"Are you okay?" Keiichi interrupted. "You want me to call them?"

"No," Urd said with a quick shake of her head. "Frigga should know at the very least..."

Keiichi took a breath and leaned against the wall. "And... um... what about your m..."

"Don't... call... her... that..." Urd bit out. "You know how I feel about this, Keiichi. I can't believe you're willing to cut her slack after everything she's done."

"I don't want to open the door and invite her for dinner," Keiichi replied tiredly. "I just think an email or something, letting her know she's going to be a grandmother isn't that big a deal."

"How you can even consider such a thing while she's still wearing Belldandy around her neck like a St. Christopher's medal is absolutely beyond me," she cried.

"Look, Urd," he said. "She's your mother, so it's your call. But maybe reaching out to her now and then is the exact kind of thing that might warm her up and get her to let Belldandy go. Ignoring her doesn't get us anywhere."

"Fine, Keiichi!" she said, throwing her hands up into the air in defeat. "I'll tell her, okay? Look, I'm telling her!" She held up her phone and typed in a text.

_Hvng a bby_.

She hit "send" and glared at him. "There! Happy!"

He frowned and shook his head. "Dammit, Urd," he breathed quietly. "I'm not trying to piss you off. I just... I don't think leaving things the way they are is going to help anything. Not between you and her. I know what she did. It almost killed me, remember? But if Belldandy were standing here right now instead of me, what kind of advice do you think she'd give you?"

"Belldandy isn't my husband," Urd growled. "And my husband should be supporting me in this kind of thing."

"I do support you," he responded firmly. "And if you want to keep Hild at arm's length for the rest of your life, fine. If you want to keep her out of the baby's life, fine. But tell me what kind of _good_ it's going to do to not even consider the possibility of having some kind of dialogue with her."

The doorbell rang, and Urd stalked down the hall to answer it. "She's not interested in a dialogue, Keiichi," she called back over her shoulder. "She doesn't give a damn about anyone but herself, and she's proven that time and again, whether it's stealing my angel, sealing Belldandy or trying to trap me in that awful bargain!" She threw open the door, expecting to see Sayoko or Megumi.

She froze, her eyes wide.

Hild squealed happily and embraced her daughter, hugging her tightly. "My little Urd is all grown up and having a baby of her own!"

"What...are you doing here?" Urd gasped out.

"I got your text!" Hild cried happily, holding up her Blackberry. "I am so happy! I'm going to be a grandmother! And before you get sarcastic, lots of women nowadays are grandmothers in their thirties..."

Hild released her daughter and pushed her way inside before Urd could protest.

"And you," she said, catching sight of Keiichi. "Perhaps I underestimated you. Any man who can bring my daughter to an altar must be made of much sterner stuff than I realized."

Keiichi said nothing. After everything he just said, the sight of the demonic queen in his house, the vial holding Belldandy's seal still around her neck, served to remind him of old pains.

"So!" Hild began, turning back to Urd with a clap of her hands. "Boy, girl, what?"

Urd glared at her for a moment before replying. "Girl."

"Glorious!" Hild cried with a clap of her hands. "A little princess! Simply glorious!"

"Princess?" Keiichi asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Of course!" the demon said, turning back to him. "The daughter of the daughter of a queen! Since Urd has, for her own reasons, decided to pass on sitting in my throne, when the time comes, our little princ..."

"Stop!" Urd hissed suddenly, interrupting her mother.

"Getting a little ahead of ourselves here, aren't we?" Keiichi asked. "I mean... she hasn't even been born yet. It's a little soon to be thinking about her life's direction..."

"Well, you can't expect her to stay here her whole life," Hild argued.

"Why not?" Keiichi and Urd asked in stereo.

The demonic queen waved the thought aside. "We can talk about it over dinner. What are you making?"

Urd threw a withering look in Keiichi's direction. "Crow," she bit out.

888

Skuld's feet hit the sidewalk on the other side of the street, and she stopped to rest. It had been a pure stroke of luck that got her away from that car. Someone had called the police and an ambulance, and when they arrived, the demon had given them her attention for barely three seconds. In that three seconds, Skuld was airborne, leaping light pole to light pole.

And Ameko was coming after her.

Fortunately, Skuld knew the area better than she did, and after some creative circling she found herself running up the street toward the temple steps.

As she cleared the last one, she skidded to a stop, her eyes going wide.

The temple was enveloped by a dome of purplish clouds that moved across the surface like a storm. Her time at the physical sciences academy had taught her what that meant. What she was seeing was the light reflecting off the absence of "something." It wasn't even vacuum. It was the demarcation line between dimensions.

The temple was no longer in the earth realm.

She dug into her vest pocket and pulled out a pair of debugging glasses. Putting them on, she gazed into the miasma of color and clicked through the spectrum settings until she got to the right one.

There it was. She could see the temple, but only barely, by bringing the tachyons traveling between Earth and pocket dimension into the visible spectrum, looking at them like photons. The building was still standing, and she couldn't see any damage or any sign of demons.

She kicked at the ground. It didn't matter one way or the other if she couldn't get there. Looking through the barrier again, she suddenly realized what it was she was looking at, the ten year old memories coming back to her.

Skuld reached up and pulled the glasses off, but as the lenses left her eyes, she thought she caught sight of something. Blinking, she looked up at the tree where a moment ago she could have sworn she saw movement.

There... like... like a bending of light...

She brought the glasses up to her eyes again and squinted.

Suddenly, Ameko's visage came into focus. The demon was holding her weapon to her shoulder.

Skuld screamed and leapt aside as bolts of red light tore up the ground where she had been standing. She jumped onto the low branch of the nearest tree and lost her footing as more arcs of light tore through the trunk like tissue paper, shredding the old oak and throwing her to the ground.

The young Norn was on her feet and running a quarter second later like a jackrabbit. She panted as she clawed at the gold buttons on her vest, one, two, three, four...

_Remember, Cheri, a young woman is always prepared to fend off the attention of an overzealous suitor..._

Skuld had taken Peorth's lessons to heart... though not exactly in the way the French goddess intended.

She waited until she could practically feel the demon's breath on the back of her neck. Then, with a shriek of fear and anger, the Norn whipped around and threw the buttons right at the Bonejacker.

Skuld saw the glint of light reflected off the heads of the buttons just before they exploded in Ameko's face. The flash of light blinded her, and the shockwave threw her clear off the hill on which the temple sat. She hit the hillside and rolled down to the sidewalk.

She lay there for a moment, gasping for breath. This was not the way she thought her reunion with Oneesama would turn out...

_Get up, or she'll kill you._

Skuld climbed to her feet and started running again. She had to find Oneesama and Keiichi. With that bubble up, they sure didn't go to the temple. They had to be somewhere else.

If she could get to a phone, she could call Peorth. The other goddess would be able to get a bead on their location from Heaven.

She looked up as she hit a chain-link fence and saw the house of the little old lady she had spoken to earlier. Hopping over the fence, she ran for the front door and banged on it with her fist.

"Hey! Help! Let me in!"

Looking around, her gaze fell on a pair of legs sticking out from the corner of the house. She swallowed, a sick feeling welling up from her stomach. Realizing she didn't have time for emotion, she steeled herself and prepared to break the door down.

At the last second, she reached out and turned the knob. The door swung open.

"Finally, a break!" she hissed to herself as she rushed inside and slammed the door shut. She took a quick look around. It was a simple home, a tiny television sat on an old-fashioned TV tray in the corner. Knick-knacks of the Three Stooges lined the walls, and a parakeet sat in a bronze cage near the window.

No phone.

She dashed into the next room, the kitchen, and found no sign of a landline or a cellphone. She went into the bedroom and started looking, searching the nightstand and the dresser. She gave a glance to the oval mirror lined with gold trim that sat on the dresser and paused.

There was something familiar about the mirror. She blinked in astonishment as she realized she'd seen one exactly like it before, on Peorth's desk at the Earth Help Center. But that would mean...

She slowly reached out and touched the silver glass, and stepped back as it started to shimmer. She squinted as the picture began to stabilize, and the image of a bald man's profile appeared. He was hawk-nosed and intense. He wasn't looking at her as he began to speak, his attention on something else out of view.

"Yes, what is it?" he asked, turning to her. When he saw it was not who he expected, he started. "Who are you?"

Skuld swallowed, unsure of what was happening, but any connection was better than none. "My name is Skuld," she said simply.

The man, a god she could tell, arched an eyebrow. "Urd's half-sister," he said.

This was getting much weirder than she was hoping for. "What?" she asked. "Who are you?"

"A friend of your sister," the man told her. "Where is Skarba?"

"You... You mean the old lady who lives here?" Skuld asked. At the man's nod, she continued. "She's dead."

"That's too bad," the man said. "What are you doing there?"

"I'm being chased," Skuld told him. "By a... a... something called a Bonejacker."

At this, the man's eyes widened in acute interest. "A Bonejacker? Do you know which one?"

Skuld nodded. "I think her name is Ameko."

"Do you know why she's there?"

"No," Skuld said, looking from side to side as if afraid saying her name would have brought her attention as well. "But I think it has something to do with Belldandy being released and Urd being pregnant and..."

"Urd is pregnant?" the man cut her off. "I see."

"You say you're a friend of Urd's," Skuld told him, determined to take control of the conversation. "Can you help me?"

The man smiled. "Oh, I think so. I'm going to send you some help. When they get there, I need you to take them to where Urd is. Can you do that?"

"It's... going to be difficult," Skuld told him. "She's in a pocket universe right now."

"Can you get to her?" the man bit out the question.

Skuld thought for a moment as memories of the counterspell Sif sang ten years ago floated through her mind. "Yeah," she said. "Yeah, I can."


	35. Behind the Strings

Foreword: I've gotten a lot of letters asking me to continue this story, and my wife finally convinced me that as long as I have writer's block on my other projects, it's okay to pen a chapter here and there of Haloes. So here we go again. For all those who wrote to me, thank you for your kind words and thoughts.

"When Love and Hate Collide" belongs to Def Leppard. Ah My Goddess does not belong to me.

Warning, it only gets darker from here.

_Ah! My Goddess! _

_Haloes_

_Chapter 35_

_Behind the Strings_

"Now then!" Hild began as Sif, Urd, and Mischa all sat down around the table, the two goddesses throwing bitter looks at the demoness as she marched around the kitchen as if she owned it, searching through cupboards. "I may not be the cook that young Belldandy is, but I know a mixture for an utterly fantastic hot cocoa and devils food cake." She looked back at them and winked. "Go fig, right?"

"I'm not hungry," Urd bit out.

"Actually, I was making the offer to the dapper Mr. Novikov," Hild told her with a grin. "Mr. Novikov, would you care for some?"

Mischa seemed surprised to be receiving such attention but smiled. "Da, da, da," he said. "It sounds wonderful."

Hild smiled at him and turned back to the cupboards. "Since we're all here for an indefinite period of time, we might as well make ourselves comfortable, yes? 'Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the deaths of kings.'" She sighed at the quote. "Oh, William..." She winked at her daughter. "That man had a tongue you would not believe..."

"'Richard II,'" Mischa noted. "I know this work."

"A cultured man," Hild said in return with an arched eyebrow. "Aren't you just full of surprises?"

Keeping her eyes on the byplay, Urd leaned over to Sif and whispered. "She's being awfully casual about this."

Sif bit her lip before answering. "With the barrier up, she has nothing but time. No one can get in and no one can get out."

Urd turned her eyes to her friend, the first flickerings of suspicion catching the light in them. "How did you know she was going to take me away?"

"I didn't," Sif said with a nervous swallow. "It just made sense..."

The Norn continued to eye her, unwilling to believe what centuries of accomplished lying were telling her. "Yeah," she said instead. "I guess so."

"So!" Hild began again, clapping her hands. "Last call for cake and cocoa! Who's in?"

"Cut the crap!" Urd cried. "What do you want?"

"I have told you up front what I want, Sweetie," her mother told her. "Once the meddling Miss Sif decides to pull that curtain aside, I intend for you to pack a bag and come with me."

"And for what reason would I do such a thing?" Sif demanded angrily.

"Your health," Hild told her darkly.

"More importantly," Urd broke in as she rose to her feet. "Why on earth would I ever go anywhere with you?"

"Your own protection, Hon," the demonic queen replied, turning back to the stove.

"Protection?" Mischa asked. He turned to Urd. "Is Morisawtoe laying the hands on you? You want for me to speak at him?"

"No, Keiichi is _not_ 'laying the hands on me,'" Urd hissed at him before turning back to Hild. "And nowhere within a thousand miles of _you_ could _ever_ be safe for me!"

"Sweetie, in light of the most recent intelligence I've seen, the only truly safe place for you and that baby is no more than three feet away from me," Hild explained.

"And just how do you come to that conclusion?" Urd asked, folding her arms over her chest.

Hild matched the stance before boldly proclaiming, "I'm not allowed to tell you."

The silence that befell the kitchen was deafening.

"Wow," Urd finally said. "That is preternaturally obnoxious, even for you."

The demoness sighed theatrically and turned back to the pot on the stove, stirring the contents slowly as she spoke. "Alas, it is not my fault. It's not that I don't have the information, it's that I'm not allowed to share it. I'm under a System Force contract to not reveal... certain information... to you... specifically."

This explanation made the Norn blink. "What?"

"It's true," Hild said with a shrug as she reached into a cabinet for some mugs. "By contract I cannot relay to you information pertaining to the threat facing you." She turned a moment later and pointed at Sif. "But she can."

Urd's head whipped around so fast she nearly broke her own neck.

Sif looked up quickly, shocked at so suddenly being placed on the spot. "I don't know what you're talking about!" she cried.

Again, listening to her friend, Urd couldn't help but feel like she was being lied to. But that was impossible. Sif was a goddess first class...

She stared at the blonde, and as Sif noticed her look for the first time, her eyes darted to the table-top.

"Sif?" Urd asked.

"Poor thing," Hild cooed. "You just haven't had enough practice at this, have you?"

"Practice at what?" Sif demanded.

"Lying, of course, child," Hild explained with a chuckle.

The goddess's face turned white. "I don't know... what you're talking about." She folded her arms over her chest and petulantly looked away.

"Now stop!" Mischa ordered, rising to his feet. "Sif is good woman, and she does not lie to people."

Urd watched as her friend's face pinched in pain at the praise.

"Sif," she said quietly. She waited for the blonde to look at her before continuing. "Give me your card."

The goddess blanched at the request. "I... I don't have any with me..."

"Oh my god, she's right!" Urd cried. "You suck at this!"

Hild smiled like a cat that had just cornered a songbird. "Liar, liar... pants on fire..."

"Give me your card!" Urd bit out angrily.

"Fine!" Sif cried, reaching into her purse and removing a small business card. "There!" She crossed her arms again and looked away, part in anger, part in shame.

Urd snagged the card and read the elegant calligraphy stenciled on it.

_Sif_

_Goddess Second Class, Limited License (probationary)_

"Oh, Sif," Urd sighed.

"It's not what you think," the other goddess whispered, her gaze seated firmly on the table-top.

888

Belldandy's hands left Keiichi's chest, her mind awhirl with the details of the story he had just shared with her. It had been one of their happiest times together, the discovery of the new life they had created, the one piece of the Almighty's power that he had granted to mortal and goddess alike.

Hearing it, she felt like she was intruding. Her hand went to her head as a wave of dizziness passed over her. She would have to slow down. If she healed him too fast, she would pass out. She had to pace herself, rest for a few moments.

Looking down, she found Keiichi's hooded eyes looking up at her.

"You can guess how much of an asshole I felt like," he told her weakly. "To be honest, I didn't think Hild would particularly care, not after seeing how she treats Urd. But after that... after Gersemi... and after what happened afterward... I'll never make that mistake again."

"What do you mean?" Belldandy asked softly, unconsciously resting her hand on his chest again.

He swallowed and looked away. "No one... No one can ever say Hild doesn't love Urd," he told her, almost ashamed of what he was saying. "And I mean _no one_. Not after what she... what we... did." He closed his eyes as sweat beaded up on his forehead. He licked his lips and spoke again. "I'm a horrible human being, Belldandy."

"No, Keiichi san!" she whispered urgently, leaning closer to him. "I cannot and will not believe such a thing."

"You'll see what I mean," he whispered. "You will."

The goddess wasn't sure if Keiichi was falling into a delirium or not, but now was not the time to be sidetracked by melancholy. "What happened next?" she asked. "With Hild, I mean?"

Keiichi's chest lurched as he tried to laugh and wince at the same time. "About what you would expect."

_Four years ago..._

The door flew open, and the second most powerful entity in Creation stormed down the temple steps so enraged that she had forgotten that she could leave the dimension with a simple thought. No, that wasn't good enough. Hild wanted to make a scene, and nothing makes a scene quite like storming out of someone's home.

She whirled around and faced her daughter again, who was standing in the doorway, arms folded over her chest.

"Tell me something, Little Urd," she hissed. "Do you get a little thrill out of this? Does threatening your mother with such a heinous thing make you feel powerful? Your ego get a little boost?"

Urd stood there and seethed. The demonic queen just didn't get it. She just didn't understand that she wasn't threatening, or bargaining or posturing. This was the way it was going to be, and woe be to any who told _her_ otherwise.

"I cannot believe that a god actually put up with your drama for as long as Vili did," Urd told her. "The god must have the patience of the Almighty One himself."

"Oh, your father and I had our drama," Hild reminded her. "But even he never threatened to never let me see you! And I would never have made a threat like that to him! That is _my_ granddaughter in there!" she cried, pointing an accusing finger at Urd's stomach. "_My_ heir!"

"And that is _exactly_ why you will never see her!" Urd hissed. "Do you hear me? Never! Do you know what my biggest fear used to be? It was that I would become like _you_! That I would be able to do things like rip the angels out of goddesses' souls and like it! That I would be able to seal people for no other reason to fuck with someone else's head! And that I would be able to do those kinds of things and _like it!_ That scared the daylights out of me!"

Hild stood there with clenched fists as her daughter rejected her in plain Japanese.

"You know what my biggest fear now is?" Urd asked. "That my daughter will do those things. That she'll become you." She shook her head. "I can't have that. And I can't spend her entire lifetime worrying about it. So you're not going to be a factor in her life. You're just not."

The demoness snorted. "What are you going to do? Erase me from the family tree?"

"Yes!" Urd snapped back with heat. "Yes! That is exactly what I'm going to do! You will not see her! You will not speak with her! When she asks me who grandma is, I'm going to say 'Frigga!' You will be nothing but the evil witch who kidnapped her aunt Belldandy! In my eyes, the greatest thing I can ever do for her is to make sure that when someone mentions the name 'Hild,' she replies with, 'Who's that?'"

Hild stood there, honestly shocked into silence. The queen took a deep breath and bit her lip. "I see," she said quietly. "That's the way it is to be, is it?"

Urd said nothing.

Hell's CEO thought for a moment. "If you agree to let me be a part of her life... I'll release Belldandy."

The Norn took two steps toward her, and Hild smiled. She had to admit, Urd had played her hand beautifully. She hadn't thought her daughter had the brass to use her own daughter as a barga...

"Go away," Urd hissed quietly. "And never come back."

Hild stood there dumbfounded. She slowly began to shake with bottled rage.

"Fine!" she hissed back. Without another word, she evaporated into the night's wind, leaving Urd alone.

The Norn stood there and took a deep breath, holding for a good ten seconds before finally releasing it into the wind. Keiichi watched his new wife from the top of the temple steps and waited for her to turn and say something.

She did turn, but saved her words for when she reached the top of the stairs.

"That was not the conversation I wanted to have today," she muttered quietly as she walked by him.

"Urd," he began as he turned to follow her.

"I don't want to hear it right now, okay?" she cut him off as she snagged her coat from the hall closet. "This was supposed to be a happy day, right? So why does it feel so shitty?"

Keiichi said nothing. Everything Urd had said to Hild... he had never realized the depths of those feelings, the pain that the Norn's relationship with the CEO of Hell had nurtured. The fear that came with it.

"Where are you going?" he asked quietly as Urd stepped past him and outside again.

"Out," she replied neutrally. She raised her cellphone to her ear as she started down the temple steps. "Hey, Megumi. You wanna get a drink?" A pause and a sigh from Urd. "Yes, I know I can't drink. Let me rephrase. Would you like to drink while I sit on the stool next to you and tell you about what an idiot your brother is? Great..."

She moved out of earshot, and Keiichi sighed. "Honeymoon's over, I guess," he muttered. He stepped back inside and mentally berated himself again. He just had to push, didn't he? Oh, sure, Urd and Hild had been dealing with the bile of their relationship for centuries, but surely it would be okay if Keiichi Morisato said it would...

Now Urd was pissed at him on what should be one of the happiest days of their lives.

_Well, I suggest you put on your big-boy pants and find a way to make this right,_ he thought. He looked up at the clock and bit his lip. It was seven-thirty. He grabbed his coat and started outside.

The happiest day of their lives wasn't quite over yet.

888

"So what did he do?" Megumi asked without preamble as she deposited her purse on the bar and sat down on the stool next to Urd's. "It's a little soon for him to imply you're getting fat."

Urd sighed and shook her head as a glass of cranberry juice arrived in front of her. "He's an idiot, that's all," she said in resignation. "He... and I... and Hild.." She clutched at the air in frustration.

"Hild?" Megumi repeated with an arched eyebrow. "Isn't that that demon who kidnapped Belldandy?"

"Huh?" Urd asked. "Oh, yeah... um... she's also the demon who gave birth to me."

"She's your _mom_?" Megumi cried.

"Don't call her that," the Norn ordered, but without malice.

Megumi was too shocked to listen to her. "So your _mom_ kidnapped Belldandy? And then you married Kei chan! What is this? Days of Our Lives?"

"Look," Urd began, "It's hard to explain, but me and Hild don't get along... at all... ever." She paused and shook her head. "She wanted me to run the family business, and I decided to go and be a goddess instead. Ever since then she's been trying to get me to come home."

"What's the family business?" Megumi asked.

"Um..." Urd suddenly became uncomfortable and looked away. "Well... it's... kind of a managerial thing..."

"Management of what?" Megumi pushed.

Urd winced. "Hell."

"YOUR MOM IS _THE DEVIL_?" Megumi cried.

"Yeah," Urd sighed. "And yes, I do see the irony. Most men only think their mother-in-law is the devil. Keiichi's mother-in-law actually is."

"So... then who was that Frigga lady at your wedding?"

"Step-mom," Urd told her. She sighed again. "Anyway, I told Keiichi we shouldn't tell Hild about the baby, but he pestered and pestered until I texted her, and then she showed up at our door!"

"Awk-ward," Megumi agreed.

"Then she and I had this huge fight, and I barred her from the baby's life for infinity," the Norn went on.

"Well," Megumi began, "On one hand, that sounds kind of harsh. On the other... she _is_ the devil and a known kidnapper. But what's the beef with Kei chan?"

"Because if he had just supported me from the beginning when I told him we shouldn't get Hild involved, none of this would have happened!" Urd growled. "Dammit, he's my husband! He's supposed to take my side in this stuff, right? Support my decisions!"

Megumi sighed. "Look, I've said it before, I'll say it again. Kei chan is kind of an idiot. But even so, it's not like he was doing it to be a dick. He just wanted to help."

"Yeah, I guess," Urd muttered. "It's just that on a day like this I didn't want to look back on it and think about how shitty it was."

"Well, the good news is that Kei chan isn't going to just let things fester," Megumi told her. "I'm sure he's looking for a way to make it right even as we speak." She glanced over her shoulder and smiled. "I'll even make you a bet," she announced. "Five thousand yen says he's going to do something goofy like... I don't know... serenade you or something."

"Serenade me?" Urd asked dubiously.

"Why not?" the girl asked. "You did it for him. Five thousand yen. Whaddya say?"

"Done," Urd said, smiling for the first time since she arrived as she shook her sister-in-law's hand.

Before the handshake even ended, a song started playing from the bar's karaoke stage and a familiar, out-of-tune voice came over the speakers.

_"You could have a change of heart, if you would only change your mind,_

_Instead of slamming down the phone girl for the hundredth time._

_I've got your number on my wall, but I ain't gonna make that call,_

_When divided we stand, babe, united we fall."_

Urd buried her face in her hands while Megumi smiled at her. "I'll take a check. I know you're good for it."

The Norn growled and turned to the stage to find her husband standing on the karaoke stage, microphone in hand. She hopped off her stool and stood at the foot of the stage, arms crossed over her chest in an attempt to look stern.

_"Without you one night alone,_

_Is like a year without you, baby!_

_Do you have a heart of stone?_

_Without you...Can't stop the hurt inside, when love and hate collide!"_

"Take him back!" Megumi called from the bar. She started pumping her fist in the air as she chanted. "TAKE-HIM-BACK! TAKE-HIM-BACK!"

"TAKE-HIM-BACK! TAKE-HIM-BACK!" the crowd chanted.

Urd's stern look evaporated, and she smiled. Keiichi handed the mic to another patron, who picked up where Keiichi left off, doing a much better job of it too. Hopping off the stage, he approached the goddess and stepped into her arms for a hug.

"I'm sorry," he said immediately.

"It's okay, Keiichi," she replied, beginning to move in a slow dance rather than let him go. She sighed. "Look... I know you mean well, but there are some things about my life... about Heaven and Hell... that you're just going to have to trust me on. It doesn't all work like it does in mortal life."

"I know," he replied, moving with her. "And I understand... at least... I think I do."

She looked down at her feet as the memory of her last words to Hild were. "I'm sorry," she said.

"About what?" he asked.

"When she offered to let Belldandy go... and I turned her down..." she began. "You have to understand, Keiichi, I had to. If I opened that door..."

"I know," he assured her softly.

She swallowed. "I can't... _can't_... let our daughter become like her," she told him with a shake of her head. "Not her. Please understand that. You don't know what she's really like. You don't..."

"I understand," he said. "Really, I do. And if that's how you want to play this, then that's how we'll play it."

Urd smiled. "Our daughter is going to be nothing like her. She's going to be a sweet and kind girl. She's going to be beautiful, but have that Morisato-ish shyness that won't let her see it until a man like her father comes along. She is."

"Yeah, she is."

"No," Urd told him sternly. "I need to hear you say it. I need you to tell me."

It was obvious to Keiichi that the issue weighed more on Urd's mind that he originally thought. "She's going to be all those things," he assured her. He thought for a moment before adding, "But she's going to know how to fix her own car too."

The Norn smiled. "Of course."

"And she's going to love flying," he went on. "And for god's sake, she's going to have her mother's fashion sense because I shudder to think of what her social life would be like if she has mine."

Urd tightened her hold on him.

"What are we going to name her?" he asked softly.

The goddess smiled as the name came unbidden to her.

"Her name is Gersemi."

_The Present..._

Urd looked up from the card, but Sif wouldn't meet her eyes. She stared at her friend for another moment before she addressed the other two people in her kitchen.

"I need a minute with Sif alone, please," she said.

"Of course," Hild said, her voice dripping with triumphant malice. "Take your time. Come along, Mr. Novikov. I would just _love_ to hear more about you."

"Everything is all right?" Mischa asked uncertainly.

"Yeah," Urd told him. "Old business. Please."

The Russian looked between the Norn and the blonde before nodding. "Okay. I go in next room." He stood up and found that Hild had taken his arm and was leading him into the living room.

Once they were alone, Urd sat down across from her friend and took a breath. "When?" she asked quietly. "How?"

"It doesn't matter," Sif replied softly.

"And the why?" Urd pressed.

Sif looked up at the ceiling in utter misery as she tried to find a way to explain it. "It was the preferable alternative. Accepting a demotion was the only way to... to solve certain problems."

"It was the only way to lie to me!" Urd hissed.

"It was the only way to lie to God, Urd!" Sif snapped back. "Do you have any idea what that feels like?" Her eyes started to moisten, and she bit her lip. "I made a decision... a decision to help you and Keiichi... and in doing so I lost The Almighty One's faith in me."

"Why?" Urd asked.

"Because I love you, Urd," Sif told her. "You and Keiichi and Belldandy... I did what I did for you. I gave up my halo... for _you_."

"What is it?" Urd asked quietly. "What could be so horrible that you _and_ Keiichi would lie to me to keep it hidden? How is it that Hild... _Hild_ of all people... is the only one that actually _wants_ to tell me?"

"Because telling you could break you for good," Sif replied. "Because after what happened to you Keiichi was afraid he had lost you _both_ forever! He wouldn't take that chance, and I agreed to help him."

"Lose us both? Me and Belldandy?"

"You and Gersemi," Sif returned quietly.

Urd swallowed as a lump reached up from her stomach and grabbed hold of her throat. She grit her teeth and fought through it.

_Don't break down! Don't break down!_

"After Gersemi died," Sif went on, "You were shattered. You lost Gersemi, but Keiichi lost you both."

Urd shook her head, her hands clenching and unclenching as she fought to retain her resolve.

"Gersemi..."

"Stop saying her name!" Urd shrieked. "I know what you're doing! You're trying to give me a breakdown so you don't have to explain yourself!"

Sif looked at her, tears in her eyes. "Then you understand why we had to keep it from you. Just saying her name is enough to break your grip on reality. I can only imagine what would happen if I told you everything."

Urd gave her friend a hateful look and took several deep breaths. "Try. Try real hard."

A tear ran down the blonde goddess's cheek. "No," she whispered. "I can't. I can't do that to you, and I can't do that to Keiichi. I made my choices, and I'm willing to live with them."

_Four years ago..._

"Okay!" Teletha began, barely able to conceal her excitement as she stood behind Urd, seated at the small computer in the Morisato household. "Now... go to double-you, double-you, double-you dot beauty with child dot com!"

Urd typed the address in and was surprised to see her face pop up in the window. A header on top of the page, blue-white on a pink background identified the page as "Beauty With Child." Under it was a single post that announced that the site was under construction.

Teletha squealed in delight and bounced up and down.

"A blog?" Urd asked skeptically.

"A blog!" the CEO confirmed ecstatically.

"You want me to write a blog?" Urd asked slowly, wanting to be a hundred percent certain of just what the heck was going on in her friend's head.

"Yes!"

"About what, exactly?" Urd asked.

"About being a pregnant model," Teletha explained. "About the trials and tribulations of being a working woman pregnant for the first time... and hawking our products while you do it."

"You really think someone is going to give a crap about that stuff?" Urd asked as she scrolled through the site.

"It's the intertubes!" Teletha retorted. "You could have a blog about an English language sexual fetish, and hundreds would come visit your site! Women will come for advice. Men will come hoping to see some skin! Win-win!"

"I'm not doing internet porn," Urd reminded her darkly.

"Of course not! But traffic is traffic."

Urd didn't seem convinced.

"Give it a try. Please?" Teletha begged. "It's about outreach. Imagine the young women you could help."

The goddess shrugged. "Okay. Why not? It might be fun."

Teletha clapped giddily. "Wonderful! Just remember to link to something we have on sale, okay?"

As Urd rolled her eyes, a knock came at the door. She got up and started for the door while Teletha took her seat at the computer, admiring her handiwork.

The Norn opened the door and found a man in a brown delivery uniform there. "Urd Morisato?" he asked.

"That's me."

"Sign this," he requested, handing her an electronic pad and stylus. The goddess signed while the deliveryman carried a large box from his truck, depositing it on the porch. She handed the pad back to him and he bowed. "Have a nice day, Ma'am."

Teletha poked her head around the corner as Urd brought the box inside and placed it on the kitchen table. "What's that?" she asked.

"It's from Keiichi's parents," Urd noted, checking the return address. She pulled a knife from one of the counter drawers and cut the box open, pulling out the crumpled up newspaper the elder Morisatos had used for packing. Finally catching a glimpse of wood, she grabbed the object and pulled it out of the box.

"Ooooooh!" Teletha opined. "That's beautiful!"

Urd placed the object on the table, her eyes wide. The stained cherry of the bassinet shined in the light. The goddess knew exactly what it was, and felt her chest constrict a little at the sentiment. When Megumi had gotten pregnant with Sachiko, her parents had sent her a similar bassinet... hand-built in Keima Morisato's garage.

It was that sense of family that most got to the Norn since she and Keiichi had gotten married. Her relationships with the members of her own family were best characterized by their acrimony. Hild was persona-non-grata, Vili resented her very existence, Frigga was kind but constantly reminded that her husband had had a child with a demon while he was engaged to her, Skuld didn't like her on principle and Belldandy...

Belldandy was the only one that genuinely liked her... and Urd had repaid her by stealing her boyfriend and marrying him.

The Morisato side of the family, however, had been nothing but accepting of her. Megumi was her best friend and Keima and Takano had welcomed her to the family with open arms. For the first time in a long time, Urd didn't feel like the black sheep of the family.

"You should totally write about this in your blog," Teletha hinted.

Urd sighed and started thinking of ways to word it.

_The Present..._

"She really thought that?" Belldandy asked. "About our family, I mean?"

Keiichi took a painful breath. "She always thought you were the one bright spot in that family," he told her. "You were the very last person in it she wanted to see hurt."

Belldandy placed her hands on his chest again and closed her eyes, channeling her power into him. "Weren't you afraid that Hild might take Urd's decision... badly?"

His eyes opened and found hers. "You mean... did I think she would hurt you?"

Belldandy said nothing.

"I hoped not," he said quietly. "But at the same time, Urd was right. If we let her use you as leverage once, she would use you like that forever. Besides, there was no way to know if her offer was sincere. I found out later that it was, that Gersemi was where the buck stopped, that there was no playing around when it came to Hild having a place in her life. By then it was too late."

Belldandy thought for several moments. "From the way you've spoken of it... of her death and the way Hild acted afterward..." She looked down at him, her eyes haunted. "It wasn't an accident, was it?"

"No," he whispered, looking away. "No, it wasn't an accident."

A low rumble of thunder, almost timed for Keiichi's statement, rolled through the Auto Clubhouse.

"Who..." Belldandy began, unable to comprehend such a thing. "Why..."

"People who... I guess in their own way... thought they were doing the right thing," Keiichi whispered. "Urd wasn't just famous down here. She was already famous in Heaven. That blog... took whatever anonymity she had left." He took a breath and tried to find a good way to explain it and finally gave up.

"Why didn't Neesan tell me this?" Belldandy asked. "Or Megumi or..." She broke off as the truth dawned on her. "Neesan doesn't know," she breathed in astonishment.

"No," Keiichi confirmed. "Urd doesn't know. Only a few of us do. That's the way it stays. Me... Hild... Ameko... a couple of demons on Hild's staff... and..." He broke off and swallowed.

Belldandy finished the thought for him. She had no way of being sure, but somehow she just knew.

"Sif."

888

Hild poked her head into the kitchen and smiled. "That Mr. Novikov is such a peach!" she commented. "Is he seeing anyone?"

"No," Urd replied deadpan.

"That's none of your business!" Sif cried. "And stay away from him!"

"And how are things going in here?"

"Frustratingly," Urd growled at her.

"Oh?" the demoness asked as she entered the room. "She's not telling you?" She clucked her tongue. "Sif, how selfish!"

"Selfish?" the blonde cried, rising to her feet. "It's you who would subject your own daughter to the threat of madness just so you can be proven right!"

"I'd argue with you, but I'd have to break my contract to make my points," Hild told her icily. "But surely even you can see the wisdom of Urd coming with me to the demon realm. Drop the barrier, and let me take her to where she will be safe."

"She's not going anywhere!" Sif retorted.

"Enough, both of you!" Urd demanded, slapping her palms on the table. She pointed at Hild. "First of all, unless you can tell me _why_ I should go hide in the demon realm with you, I'm not going anywhere!" She turned and pointed at Sif. "And you don't get to make decisions for me while you're still lying to my face!"

"Good girl!" Hild cheered.

"Shut up!" Urd yelled back. "I don't know what kind of drug deal you and Keiichi have, but it's done! Now!" She turned back to Sif. "Tell me everything. Everything! Right now!"

Sif shook her head. "No. I can't."

"Damn you, Sif!"

"Girls! Girls! Girls!" Hild cried, stepping between them. "It seems that things have become rather heated, wouldn't you say?" She clapped her hands and turned away from them, stepping toward the door. "Let's change the subject for a bit, shall we? How about fashion!"

Sif and Urd looked to one another in bewilderment. "Fashion?" Urd asked.

"Quite!" Hild replied, her back still toward them. "Sif, dear, you seem to be a goddess of some taste and refinement, tell me..." She turned back, her hands now encased in a pair of white opera gloves with gold trim. "What do you think of my new gloves?"

Sif fell out of her chair as if pushed. "Stay away from me!" she gasped as she pushed herself across the floor, coming to a halt only when her back hit the wall.

"You don't like them?" Hild asked with a malicious grin. "I thought about wearing them to the opera... or... I suppose more appropriately... the symphony."

Sif shook her head frantically in a total fear that perplexed Urd. "Stay away from me! You can't have her! Stay away from me!"

Hild's grin only intensified as she knelt in front of the blonde. "Oh no?" she asked. "Actually..." She reached out until her hand was a foot from Sif's face, then snagged something out of the air between them. "... it's quite easy."

Sif cried out, her hands going to her chest as Hild rose to her feet, Sif's viola grasped firmly in her hand.

"I had to grant a lot of favors to get these gloves," Hild remarked. "But I'm glad I did."

"Give her back!" Sif demanded.

"Oh, I don't think so," Hild replied, examining the instrument.

"What are you doing?" Urd demanded, shooting to her feet.

"Moving things along," Hild told her. "I haven't got all day. Now then, is it this one?" She ran her index finger along one of the viola's strings, and Urd turned as she heard Sif choke.

The blonde covered her mouth with her hand, and her shoulders jerked again.

"Sif?" Urd asked. "Are you okay?"

Unable to hold it in any longer, the other goddess bent over as she began to giggle. Urd watched in astonishment as Sif reached out to steady herself on the table, seemingly unable to stop laughing.

"Hmmm," Hild remarked as she trailed her finger up and down the string. "Not quite. Let's try this one..." She placed a finger on another string.

Sif stopped laughing and took several deep breaths. "Oh," she breathed as she stood up. The goddess seemed very flustered, her face taking on a pronounced shade of pink, and a bead of sweat forming on her forehead. "Oh my," she breathed again.

"What are you doing to her?" Urd demanded.

"I'm pulling her strings, of course," Hild joked with a smile.

"Stop it! Leave her alone!"

"You want to know, don't you?" Hild asked her. "She's been lying to you for nearly four years. Don't you want to know why? Aren't you entitled to the truth?"

"Not if it means torturing her!" Urd bit out.

"She doesn't look tortured to me," the demoness noted with a grin.

Urd turned back to Sif to find her friend leaning against the table and fanning herself, her breathing much more labored than before. "Can I... Can I have some ice water?" the goddess asked, her eyes closed.

The Norn quickly filled a glass with water and ice cubes and handed it to the blonde, who gulped it down quickly before pulling the front of her blouse open and dumping the ice down her shirt.

"How are you doing, Sif dear?" Hild asked gamely.

"I'm not... going to say anything," Sif gasped. "It doesn't matter what you do to me..."

"I wasn't going to do anything," Hild assured her. "I just thought perhaps we should bring Mr. Novikov in..."

Sif whimpered. "Oh, please... not like this!"

"Very well," Hild relented. "Don't say I never did anything for you, though." She found another string and ran her fingernail along it. "I think this might be it..."

Sif's back hit the table, and her arms flopped to either side of her.

"You killed her," Urd whispered.

"Oh, please!" Hild said, rolling her eyes. "Sif... Sif! Wake up!"

"Hmmm?" the blonde asked, struggling to raise her head off the table. "I don' wanna gota school..." she mumbled.

"Siiiiif..." Hild drawled out mock-sternly. "Have you been getting into the cola again?"

"Thas funny... I don' 'member drinking..."

The grin on Hild's face spread to her ears. "Mr. Novikov asked about you."

"He did?" The blonde giggled. "Does he like me?"

The demoness turned to Urd. "Here's your chance, Sweetie."

"What?" Urd asked.

"She's not being tortured, just a little tipsy," Hild told her. "No different than if you'd gotten her wasted on Dr. Pepper."

The Norn said nothing.

"How wrong can it be to find the truth?" Hild asked. "You wanted me to tell you why, this is the only way I can."

Urd licked her lips as the idea of taking advantage of one of her closest friends began to take root in her mind. It was a betrayal of trust, she knew... but no more so than lying to her for four years.

She took a hesitant step toward the table and knelt next to it near where Sif's head lay. The blonde's eyes were closed in a sleepy, inebriated state. The Norn felt hideous for doing this, for forcing the answers from her friend this way, but she had to know.

"Sif?" she asked quietly. "Can you hear me?"

"Ovcourse Ican hear you," Sif mumbled in reply. "Can I havanother soda?"

"In a minute," Urd assured her. "First... I need you tell me... I need you to tell me about..." She took a breath and strengthened her resolve. "... about the baby."

Sif's face darkened. "I don' wanna talkbout it," she said. "I have bad dreams..."

"I need to know," Urd begged softly. "What are you and Keiichi hiding from me? What did you do?"

The blonde's eyes opened as she turned her head toward her, tears in her eyes.

"Oh, Urd," she whispered. "It was awful..."

"What was awful, Sif?" Urd pressed. "What did you and Keiichi do that you couldn't tell me about?"

The goddess's eyes seemed to glaze over as if she weren't looking at her friend, but past her into a nearly-forgotten nightmare.

"Oh, Urd..." she whimpered again.

"...we killed so many people."


	36. Ruins: Part One

Ah! My Goddess! isn't mine. Neither is FMP.

Ah! My Goddess!

Haloes!

Chapter 36

Ruins

Part 1

"Do you know what's worth fighting for?

When it's not worth dying for?

Does it take your breath away

And you feel yourself suffocating?"

_Green Day_

_"21 Guns"_

_10 years ago..._

"Ruins," wasn't the right word. "Ruins" implied that time had passed, and the rubble he was standing among was fresh, some of it still smoldering. Piles of stone, ancient unbreakable stone, covered the ground as far as he could see, with the occasional beams of wood protruding from the ground, some accidentally, but some not.

Crosses.

Rising from the rubble were crosses of wood, and hanging from each was... someone... Gods and demons were nailed to them by their wings. Some mortals by their hands and ankles. They hung there, the congealed blood at their feet attesting to them having been there awhile and having died days ago.

And before them he stood, covered in blood which had dried and cracked on his face, his hands and in his hair. It looked as if he had dived into a pool of it and emerged, letting it dry on him, encasing him in gore.

What he wore could not be seen through the blood, only the object in his hand was recognizable. A knife, a cruel-looking, hideous thing held tightly in his right hand. Unlike the rest of him, it was spotless and glinted in the light.

He looked up and caught his eyes... and was unrecognizable as the man he thought he knew...

"What did you see?"

Keiichi looked up from the petting zoo pen, caught off-guard by the question. He looked into the eyes of the goddess who had become his best friend in the world and saw the concern there. After what he'd been through in the last few months, he supposed that kind of concern was justified. He didn't want her to worry, didn't want to bring more unwanted drama to her life than he already had. At the same time, he felt she deserved better than a lie.

It was nothing to worry about, after all. A sideshow attraction, but even so...

He fought down a shudder and answered her.

"I'll never tell."

_The Present..._

He woke from the dream and found Belldandy looking down at him with concern. The memory rattled him, but it wasn't relevant now.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"Only a few moments," she told him. He could hear now the rattle of rain on the roof of the clubhouse. He ached, more than he had in a long time. Swallowing, he found her eyes again and cleared his throat.

"Sorry," he said.

"It would be easier if you slept," she told him.

"You need to hear this," he told her.

"If even Neesan has not heard this, then surely it can wait until you're stronger, Keiichi san," Belldandy argued quietly.

"Urd doesn't know because of what it would do to her, not because she doesn't deserve to know," Keiichi told her. He swallowed back pain again and coughed. "You think I like hiding something like this from her? I wanted to tell her a million times, to tell her... that she didn't have to be afraid anymore... but if she knew... Goddess, Belldandy, if you had seen her four years ago..." He swallowed again and fought back tears as the memory resurfaced.

"It's all right, Keiichi san," she whispered.

"She was so happy, you know?" he went on. "It was like something out of a goddamn storybook, and..." He broke off and looked up at the ceiling. "And then it was over. All of it. I'd thought I'd lost her. I thought I'd lost them both."

Belldandy closed her eyes and sighed quietly, trying to imagine the kind of pain her sister had gone through. "How did it happen?" she asked.

"Out of nowhere," he replied. He shook his head as his eyes studied the ceiling. "And then you look back at the signs that were there and you think, 'how could I miss that?' But there really was no way of knowing."

_Four years ago..._

Urd opened the box from Babies Abound and examined the tea cup that sat inside. The words, "Mom-to-Be," were painted in pink script on the side, and she smiled. Examining the card, she found it was a free gift from the company and that they hoped to see her in their store soon.

It wasn't the first, "Come shop here!" invitation she had gotten, but she had to admit it was a novel one. She placed the cup in the cupboard and retook her seat at the computer. She was trying to put the finishing touches on a blog post about her current predicament, waking up one moment and finding your pants tighter than usual.

Two months in, and she was experiencing more than what she could post about. There were, after all, extreme differences between a goddess's pregnancy and a mortal's. With a goddess's spiritual sensitivity, she had felt Gersemi's presence since the moment of conception, and the older the young spark of life got, the more Urd could communicate with her. It wasn't in words, at least not yet, but she could definitely feel the emotions emanating from her daughter, and her daughter could feel her.

She looked at the screen and frowned, unsure of where to go from there.

"Well, you got any ideas?" she asked.

The spark seemed to know she was the one being addressed and glowed a little warmer in response.

"I agree," Urd told her, not really knowing what he daughter had said, but assuming she knew anyway. "Screw this. Let's get something to eat."

Before she could make it to the kitchen, however, the phone in the hall started to ring. Making a quick detour, Urd swung through the hall and picked it up.

"Ya'llo!" she said in greeting.

"Urd! It is Mischa! Is important!"

The goddess arched an eyebrow. Keiichi was already at work, and it wasn't like she and Mischa were buds or anything so...

She felt a lump form in her throat as a terrifying possibility suddenly gripped her. Her eyes went straight to the calendar hanging on the wall in front of her, a note on today's date confirming the possibility of why her husband's boss might be calling her with "important news."

_Keiichi's flying..._

The Norn swallowed as Gersemi's spark, catching her mood, started to bounce around in panicked confusion.

"Is Keiichi all right?" she asked quickly.

"What?" Mischa asked. Urd suddenly realized that she had either asked the question too fast or too softly for the Russian to catch it.

"Is Keiichi okay?" she bit out.

"Oh! He is fine. I tell him you ask so."

Urd planted the palm of her hand into her forehead in frustration. That stupid Russian asshole had just made her practically wet herself for no goddamn reas...

"I am having big news!" Mischa went on. "All employees and families and friends can come hear!"

The Norn sighed. "Look, that's nice and all..."

"Big big news!" Mischa reiterated. "You come. Sif can come too."

"Sif's not here," Urd told him, her eyebrow twitching. Of course he didn't care if Urd came or not, he wanted Sif.

"Er... Okay, you come anyway," he said.

"Fine," she replied. At the very least it would get her out of the house for awhile. "When?"

"Now. Come quickly. I address employees as soon as Morisawtoe lands."

Of course he had to wait for Keiichi to land, Urd knew. The Norn grinned in triumphant pride. Without Keiichi, Mischa didn't have a company, and just about everyone knew it. He was practically a partner now instead of an employee.

"Okay," she said. "Be there soon."

She hung up before the engineer could reply and turned her thoughts inward. "It's okay," she told Gersemi. "Mommy just got scared for a second because that scruffy idiot doesn't know enough to show a little tact."

Urd felt the mental equivalent of a sigh of relief from within her and smiled. "That's it. Daddy's fine. Everything's okay. We're going to go out for a bit."

Stopping at the door long enough to put on her heels and grab her purse, Urd stepped out into the sunlight and down the steps toward the car. The four-door BMW was the result of a frank question posed by Urd about where the baby would sit on the GT. Once the reality of how much Gersemi was about to change their lives had set in, some changes had to be made. So Keiichi had taken her to the BMW dealer, found something she felt comfortable sitting in, bought it and then taught her to drive it.

With some success...

Fortunately, you didn't need to be a goddess first class to repair scratches in the paint brought on by a frank disagreement with a light post... or a fire hydrant... or a wall... or...

Well, you get the idea.

Traffic was light today, and it only took twenty minutes to get to the Sukuya hangar. Pulling into a parking spot, she spotted a familiar Mercedes and smiled.

"Aunt Sayoko's here," she told Gersemi as she stepped out of the car. It must be big news if even Sayoko was out here. She felt the spark react and smiled. For some reason, Gersemi seemed to like Sayoko more than her other friends. It wasn't as if she had ever seen Sayoko or spoken with her, but whenever Sayoko was around, the feelings from the spark of her daughter's mind grew warmer. Perhaps it was because Urd and Sayoko had such an... interesting past.

She walked through the massive doors of the hangar and found a small crowd milling around one corner where a podium and several rows of metal chairs had been set up. Spotting a familiar figure near the podium, she made a beeline for Sayoko and smiled as the woman caught sight of her.

"Urd! You look great!" Sayoko cried as she took the Norn's hands.

"Well, I'm not fat yet," Urd told her. "So what's going on?"

The mortal woman winked at her. "I won't steal Mischa's thunder. This is a big deal for him."

Urd squeaked as she felt an arm wrap around her from behind and someone kissed the left side of her neck.

"Hey, Angel," her husband greeted her. "What are you doing here?" She turned and found him examining the crowd. "Um... what is _everyone_ doing here?" The engineer was still in his flight suit, a blue and white helmet cradled under his left arm.

"Big day, Keiichi," Sayoko told him.

"Oh?"

"Mmm-hmm," Sayoko replied mysteriously. "Big day."

Keiichi looked at Urd, who just shrugged. "Don't look at me. I just got a call that said to show up."

"Everyone! Everyone be sitting down please!" Mischa called to the group. Everyone grabbed a seat, and Mischa, leaning on his cane, stepped up to the podium. He clapped his hands together once and smiled. "Today is very big day. Very important news."

"You get indicted again?" Hotaru called from the back.

"That was only the one time, and everything was working out okay!" Mischa called back as the crowd laughed. "Nyet! Bigger! Sukuya has won contract... for YF-40."

The crowd cheered in surprised triumph.

Urd leaned over to Keiichi on her right. "What does that mean?"

"It means we're going to be one of the subcontractors for the newest fifth-generation stealth fighter," Keiichi told her. "Flight control systems, low-observable technology, integrated avionics and flight testing."

Urd leaned over to Sayoko on her left. "What does that mean?" she whispered again.

Sayoko gave her a much simpler answer. "Ten years steady work and a shitload of money," she said.

"Ahhhh!"

Urd's eyes narrowed as something still didn't fit. "And exactly why are you part of this again?" she asked the heiress.

Sayoko smiled. "Nergal is the primary contractor on this project," she said. "We're the ones that hired Sukuya."

"Totally coincidental, right?" Urd asked with a grin.

The mortal woman shook her head. "Not at all. Impressions are important to Father, and Keiichi made a good one on him. I won't deny it gave Mischa an edge."

"Your dad based that kind of decision on what he thinks of Keiichi?" she asked.

Sayoko shrugged. "Sure. After all, do you think Keiichi would sell him a jet that doesn't do exactly what he says it will do?"

"No, of course not."

"And Father knows that too." She smiled. "Relax, Urd! Keiichi's made it! He's in the big-time now!"

"The big time?" Urd repeated quietly to herself. She looked up and found that Keiichi had gone up to the podium to shake Mischa's hand. The Russian hugged him and slapped him on the back. Urd smiled.

Mischa leaned over to the microphone. "Good, now Morisawtoe... build me stealth jet!"

The crowd laughed again.

888

"You okay?" Keiichi asked as they drove toward the temple. Sitting in the BMW's passenger seat, Urd's hands rested on her belly as she looked out the window.

She turned to her husband and smiled. "Yeah," she said. "I'm fine. Why?"

"You just seemed a little... I don't know... out there," Keiichi told her.

The Norn faced forward as they came to a stop light. "Sayoko says you're in the big time now."

"Yeah, I guess so," he replied.

"I guess I'm just trying to reconcile that in my head," she explained. "When I met you, you were living on your last two thousand yen and barely passing basic German. And now..." She shook her head. "How did it happen so fast?"

The light turned green, and they started down the street again. Keiichi shrugged. "I guess it just did," he said, unsure of where his wife was going with this. "It's nice that it happened now, though. We'll be making more money, enough to be comfortable anyway."

"I'm not complaining about that, not at all," Urd said. "It's just... I don't know. I feel like I blinked and everything changed." She took a breath. "Freya told me once that I didn't understand how time flowed down here. Maybe she was right."

"Don't tell me you're feeling _old_!" Keiichi cried.

She turned on him and pointed at her own face. "I dare you... _dare you_... to find one wrinkle on this face!"

"Okay! Okay! I didn't mean anything by it!" he surrendered with a grin. "It's just kind of odd to hear."

Her smile lost some of its shine. "I guess... it's just that so much has changed in such a short... well... relatively short... time." She looked over at him. "You even look different than when I met you."

He snorted. "I dare you to find one gray hair on this head..."

"Is it going to be that way with Gersemi too?" she asked.

"What?" Keiichi asked, sensing that his wife had finally found her way to what was really bothering her.

She looked down at her stomach and frowned. "I just don't want to wake up one day, years from now, and realize that I've rushed through something I should have taken my time with. It's going to go fast, much faster than it would in Heaven."

He looked ahead and thought on this. "Maybe," he finally said. "Maybe that just means we don't let opportunities go to waste."

"I'm not really getting old, am I?" she asked.

"I wouldn't say 'old,'" he needled her. "More like... matured..."

He felt her hand on his thigh and looked over to find her sly grin staring back at him. "Bet I can make you feel like a teenager before we get back to the temple."

Keiichi cleared his throat. "Oh yeah?"

"Mmmmmm-hmmmm," she murmured, her hand moving up his leg.

A slow grin spread over his face. "Prove it."

888

"And still champion!" Urd announced as she walked through the front door of the temple.

Keiichi followed and shut the door behind them. "Say what you want," he told her. "I'm having a hard time feeling like a loser in this."

"True," she noted playfully as she put a kettle on the stove to make tea. "I won the game, but you got the prize."

When he didn't answer, she looked up and found him looking around the room as if examining the place.

"What is it?" she asked.

He turned back to her, biting the inside of his cheek in thought. "I was just thinking..." he began.

"Well now we're in trouble," she remarked.

"You're making good money, and now so am I," he said, ignoring the joke. "Maybe it's time to move on."

"Move on?"

"From here," he specified, cocking his head toward the wall. "You're right, when Belldandy and I first came here, I was flat broke, and this place... I guess it came to our rescue. Now that we're established, starting a family... maybe it's time to return it so it can help someone else."

Urd thought on this for several moments. "Yeah," she tentatively agreed. "But..."

"But?"

She gave him a concerned look. "But this place is home. It's always been home. I don't really want to leave it."

Keiichi thought on this.

"Also," Urd went on. "There's Belldandy to think of. This is still her home too. And when she comes out of her seal, it's the first place she'll come to."

"Yeah," Keiichi agreed quietly. "Yeah, I guess so."

She grabbed her new tea cup and one for Keiichi and poured for them both. "Don't get me wrong," she went on. "If your job means we have to move somewhere, I'm okay with that. I think it'll be an adventure. But to move just to move... It doesn't feel right."

He sipped his tea and thought on her argument. "Okay," he finally agreed. "We'll stay. At least until that priest decides to come back." He chuckled. "By the time he finds enlightenment there'll be a whole new generation of Morisatos living here."

"Heck, for all we know about the squatting laws here, you might actually own the place," Urd said with a roll of her eyes.

A knock at the door ended the conversation, and Keiichi gestured for Urd to stay seated. He walked to the front door and opened, finding Sayoko there, her hands resting on Shin's shoulders in front of her.

"Hey!" she said. "Shin and I wanted to drop by and say congratulations again," the heiress told him. "Right, Shin?"

The little boy obediently nodded.

"Hey, thanks!" Keiichi told them. "Something tells me I couldn't have done it without you," he told Sayoko with a wink.

"Don't drag me into this," she admonished. "Father saw your name in one of the bids and decided to dig further. That's all."

"Hey, Sayoko!" Urd called as she poked her head into the hallway. "You want some tea?"

"Sure."

Keiichi knelt in front of Shin. "Okay, buddy, whaddya say we go and see if the carnival is open yet?"

The boy lit up. Not every kid's uncle had a haunted carnival in their backyard. He nodded excitedly.

Keiichi took his hand and led him outside. "Come on."

Sayoko watched them walk out before walking to the kitchen where Urd was pouring her a cup of tea. "So how are you doing?" Sayoko asked her. "We didn't have much of a chance to talk earlier."

"Me? I'm great," Urd told her with a shrug. "Goddesses don't get morning sickness," she added with a wink.

"Rub it in, why don't you?" Sayoko asked, remembering her own bouts of nausea at all times of the day when she was pregnant with Shin. Urd handed her a cup of tea and sat down again.

"Where's Keiichi and Shin?" she asked.

"Keiichi took him to the carnival," Sayoko told her. "Didn't mean to steal him," she added. Something in the statement made her look guilty, and Urd picked up on it.

"What is it?" the goddess asked.

Sayoko smiled. "I guess that's just another reason I brought Shin with me," she said. "I kinda wanted him to spend a little more time with Keiichi before... you know..."

"Sayoko, we're not moving away or anything," Urd told her with a chuckle.

"Yeah, but Keiichi has been so good to Shin." She shrugged. "I guess I wanted him to have a little more time with him before the baby comes."

Urd offered her a gentle smile. "Keiichi loves Shin," she assured her friend. "He'll always be there for him. Gersemi isn't going to change that."

Sayoko sighed and looked out the window. "If I could have picked a man to be his father, it would have been Keiichi," she said. "I want Shin to be like him, you know? That kind of man."

"I'm sure he will be," Urd said. "He's a good boy."

"Yeah." Sayoko paused for a moment before smiling at Urd and changing the subject. "'Gersemi?' You've chosen a name?"

"Yeah," Urd told her. "It's a girl."

"How do you..." Sayoko broke off and rolled her eyes. "Right. Goddess. Got it."

"There are advantages," Urd said with a wink before taking another sip of tea.

"Any disadvantages?" Sayoko asked with mirth.

The goddess shrugged. "She'll be half-mortal," she said. "But there are advantages to being mortal as well."

888

Urd ran the brush through her hair for the hundredth time and took a breath, giving herself a look in the mirror. She caught sight of her husband and turned to find him setting up their futon for bed.

"You're doing the hospital tomorrow, right?" he asked.

"Yep," she replied, rising from her seat at the make-up table and walking toward him. "One of the other girls who volunteers there is out sick, so Kiyoshi asked me if I could come in a few extra days."

He waited for her to get into bed before hitting the light switch and joining her. "How is Kiyoshi, anyway?" he asked.

"She's good," she replied. "But I don't know... a little sad lately. I'm kind of worried about her, to be honest. I'd invite her over for dinner, but I think that might be a bit... awkward."

"More awkward than Sayoko?" he asked. "You should invite her. She's still a friend."

"Yeah, you're right, I guess," Urd relented. "Tomorrow."

Keiichi rolled over and closed his eyes, already thinking of tomorrow's schedule and the huge amount of work that waited for him for the YF-40 design. As he drifted off, he heard his wife next to him, singing softly.

Even after two years it still mesmerized him to hear her sing. She didn't sing in words, there were no lyrics. It was her own language, the one her spirit had created to work around her aphasia. The notes she sang _were_ the lyrics, and it was still the most hauntingly beautiful thing he had ever heard.

He listened as she sang the lullaby to Gersemi in a language only the two of them would ever share. She had started the bedtime ritual two weeks before. On the third day, she had sheepishly asked him if she was keeping him up. He told her she was and asked her to continue.

It wasn't just love-goggles that made him think so. Sif was as much an authority on music as anyone he had ever met, and even she claimed the singing was the most beautiful she had ever heard, even more than Belldandy's.

His eyes closed as the song ended, and he took a breath. Sayoko was right. He had made it.

This is what life was supposed to be like.

888

"Made you some tea," Keiichi told Urd as the goddess walked into the kitchen. The Yggdrasil sysop-turned-supermodel took the Babies Abound cup from him and used the tea to chase two pills. "You feeling okay?" he asked with a tinge of concern.

"Headache," she said, waving the question aside. "You let me sleep too long. I'm going to be late," she complained as she made for the door.

"Love you!" he called after her.

"Love you too!"

Urd dashed out the door and hopped into the BMW. She hated being late to the hospital. Being late for work was one thing. That was work. When you were late to help a bunch of burned children, there really was no good way to justify it. She just wished her head felt better. She had no idea why, but she had woken up that morning with a slight, but annoying pain just behind her eyes.

The goddess felt Gersemi tentatively reach out to her, and she smiled. "No, it's okay. Mommy's just not feeling well, that's all."

It was annoying more than anything else, but she supposed it could be worse. At least goddesses didn't get morning sickness. She shook her head at the thought. She couldn't understand why the Almighty had decided that mortal women have to suffer in order to create life. After all, it didn't hurt _him_ any to create mortals. Maybe it was just his way of giving mortal man the finger. _"Think it's so easy to create something, huh? Well, the rule is you can create life, but you have to vomit a lot, get swollen ankles and back pain and then go through the most brutal pain you can imagine at the end of it."_

Compared to that, a headache wasn't so bad.

It still annoyed her though.

She put it out of her mind as she parked the car and walked through the main lobby of the hospital. The goddess was there to help the kids, and the kids, most of whom were enduring pain she couldn't even imagine, didn't want to hear about her headache.

When she got to the burn ward, she found Kiyoshi already there, adjusting her glasses as she looked over a roster. The millionaire's daughter hadn't changed much since her date with Urd's husband nearly five years ago, though over those five years the goddess had noticed that her friend had grown a little more distant, more lonely.

She resolved to make sure that Kiyoshi came to dinner that night. It wasn't right for a girl with a heart as pure and noble as Kiyoshi to be alone.

"Hey," she said in greeting, putting her purse down on the counter.

"Good morning," Kiyoshi said with a smile. "And good morning to you," she added with a smile toward Urd's stomach.

Urd felt Gersemi flutter at the attention. "So," she began. "What's on the schedule today?"

888

"DUBIINA! BALVAN!"

The words, yelled so angrily from inside Mischa's office, made him pause in the hallway. Whoever the MiG driver was talking to, he was super pissed at them.

He had his answer a moment later when Hotatru exited his office, sighed and tipped her hat to him.

"I love you too," she replied. Turning, she found Keiichi standing there, unsure of what was going on.

"Oi," she said. "You wanna get some breakfast?"

Keiichi learned long ago that when it came to Hotaru Woodward, you just had to go with it. "Yeah, sure," he said.

888

"You're kidding me, right?" Keiichi asked as they sat down and a parrot landed on his head. "This place serves breakfast?"

"Too right," she said, opening a menu with the Jade Parrot Bar and Grill logo emblazoned on the front. "Best place to get a bacon and egg sandwich."

Keiichi sighed, wondering if Mischa was stomping through the office yelling, "Morisawtoe! Where is you?" yet.

"So," he began tentatively. "What happened?"

"Hmm?" the Aussie asked, looking up from the menu.

"Between you and Mischa?"

"Oh, that," she said. "He's just pissed because I quit."

"You _quit_?" Keiichi cried. "When? Why?"

"Well, when was just fifteen minutes ago," she said. "And why is because Lockheed-Martin offered me a shit-ton of money to do the same job I do here, test flying their YF-46."

The news floored him. Lockheed was Nergal's competitor in the next-generation fighter program. The YF-46 was the main obstacle in selling the YF-40 to the JASDF, and here was one of his closest friends telling him she was going to be flying it.

Hotaru saw the look on his face and gave him a sheepish shrug. "Mischa's little announcement yesterday forced my hand," she admitted. "I couldn't dilly-dally anymore, ya know? It was either take the job now before they make us sign the non-disclosure agreements or give up on it altogether, and it's too good an opportunity."

Keiichi deflated in his seat. Objectively, he saw Hotaru did the morally right thing, but it also meant he was losing one of his best friends, and Mischa was losing a great test pilot. He could see why the old Russian was mad.

"So where will you go?" he asked. "And when?"

"Georgia," she said. "In the U.S. Sometime in the next month, I think."

He took a breath and shook his head. "Jeez, Razor," he said. "You really know how to fuck up a party, don't you?"

She smiled at him. "Oh, don't be that way," she said. "Now you get the YF-40 all to yourself."

"Yeah, I guess," he said.

Hotaru looked like she had just told him his dog had died. "Hey, we all do what we gotta, right? You got to the big time, and now I have to do the same. We all do what we feel we have to."

He finally looked up and smiled. "Heck, Razor, I'm happy for you. You're right, it's a big break."

"Thanks, mate," she said with a grin. "I hope Mischa comes to see it that way."

888

Keiichi poked his head into Mischa's office and found the Russian designer angrily tapping his pencil against the desk.

"So," Keiichi began. "I talked with Razor."

"Razor," he growled with a snort. "More like..." He thought for several moments before looking up at Keiichi again. "Quick," he said. "What is word that means 'traitor' but rhymes with 'razor?'"

"There isn't one," Keiichi told him.

"Damn!"

Keiichi leaned against the doorframe and shrugged. "She did the right thing," he said. "She could have waited three months, walked out of here with design concepts you came up with and offered them to Lockheed. You would have spent the rest of your life looking at the F-46 and wondering if _you_ had helped them beat you."

Mischa growled again. "I am losing good pilot," he bit out. "Good woman!"

The younger man smiled. "Yeah, but she's still our friend. She made sure of that by quitting now."

"Bah," he replied.

"So," Keiichi said, changing the subject. "You think of a project name yet?"

"We will call her 'Verushka!'" Mischa announced. "After girl I met in Azerbaijan."

"How is it that we seem to name all of our planes after women you've slept with?" Keiichi asked, folding his arms over his chest.

"What? You prefer we name her 'Urd?'" he asked. "Or... 'Sif?'"

If his past work with aircraft was any indication, he would be able to converse with the YF-40, and calling it by his wife's name was just a bit too weird for him.

"Fine. We'll stick with 'Verushka," he relented.

888

Urd closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, her elbows resting on the hospital cafeteria's worn table. Sitting on the other side of that table, Kiyoshi frowned sympathetically.

"You okay?"

"Headache," Urd replied tiredly. "Can't seem to shake it."

"I think I have some aspirin in my purse," the heiress offered.

"No," Urd sighed, waving the offer aside. "No native cures. No witch doctors. I'm all right."

"You sure?" the girl asked again.

"Yeah," Urd told her, forcing a smile. "Can't win sometimes, right?"

"Yeah," Kiyoshi replied, reflecting her smile.

"So what's the problem?" Urd asked suddenly, catching the other woman completely off-guard.

"I'm sorry?"

"Look, Kiyoshi, you might have everyone else around here fooled, but I can tell there's something bothering you," Urd told her tiredly. "Now, we can dance around it for a few days, or we can just go ahead and air it out. So come on. Spill."

Kiyoshi sat back in her chair and gave Urd a pointed look. "Is this some kind of goddess thing?" she asked.

"No, this is a 'friend' thing," Urd replied evenly. "I've seen it for awhile. What's wrong?"

The young woman gave a long sigh as she thought of what to say. "I don't know," she said with a shake of her head. "I think... I don't know..."

Urd looked down at the table-top and drew a little circle in the fake wood with her fingernail. "May I make an observation?" she asked.

"Please."

"When was the last time you actually went out with someone?" Urd asked. "Like a friend? Or a date? Or... well... anything that wasn't here?"

Kiyoshi looked away for a moment. "You're saying I'm lonely."

It wasn't a question or a request to clarify. Urd took a breath. "Most girls I know your age are out having a good time," she said. "But every time I see you, you're busy. The only time I've ever heard of you doing something fun was when you went out with Keiichi."

"I guess... I'm just busy," Kiyoshi said evasively.

"Is that all?"

The heiress looked away in a manner that told Urd she was onto something.

"Have you ever..." Kiyoshi began, pausing for a moment before finding the will to continue. "Have you ever had an opportunity... an opportunity to change your life forever... and then... wasted it? Because of a technicality? Or... or... you just didn't think about it hard enough first?"

Urd thought for a minute. "Well... to be honest... I can't think of one. I guess I've just been lucky. Whenever I've gone out on a limb it's all kind of worked out."

Kiyoshi smiled wanly. "I had a chance to be like a Disney princess," she said. "I had a fairy godmother who gave me the chance to find my happily ever after... and I blew it. Because I phrased my wish wrong."

Urd went silent. She had heard about Kiyoshi's wish from Sif. As a matter of fact, there had been some brief panicking on their part as they tried to divine what her wish had meant for Keiichi and Belldandy. At the time, deducing that it was nonbinding on Keiichi based on its wording had made the two goddesses sigh in relief. They hadn't thought about its effect on Kiyoshi, that an opportunity granted to one in every five hundred million mortals had amounted to nothing. The Norn suddenly felt very guilty. Not only had she stolen her sister's boyfriend, but a man her friend had been destined to meet and live happily ever after with.

The goddess took a breath before answering. "As someone with a little knowledge in how that system works, I can tell you you're not the only one," she said. "There was this guy in Greece who once asked to have everything he touched turn to gold." She shook her head. "The granting goddess asked the guy _five times_ if he was sure, but the dumbass wished it anyway." She tried to remember what happened to him. "I think he starved to death..."

Kiyoshi sighed. "That doesn't really help, Urd..."

"Yeah, I guess not," Urd sighed. She blinked as a thought struck her. She was an idiot! She had lived like a mortal for so long that she had nearly forgotten what she was!

The young woman flinched as Urd slapped her hands on the table. "What?"

"Kiyoshi, I'm going to grant you your wish!"

The girl blinked. "Um... how?"

"Well," Urd began, losing steam as the complications of her thought finally came to the fore. "Well... I can't _literally_ grant your wish... But I _am_ a love goddess. Which means that I'm a certified expert in the art of hooking people up! P-H-D in Love-ology! General Harass-titioner!"

Kiyoshi gave her a pitying look. "Like that's going to be hard," she said. "One look at my bank book, and I can have all sorts of guys. I want _the_ guy!"

"And I'm going to find him for you!" Urd promised. "We'll start tonight!"

"Tonight?"

"Yep! Come over to my place around seven. We'll all have dinner together and start working on what you're looking for."

Kiyoshi gave it some thought and started to smile. "Well... sure! Okay! Why not?"

888

Keiichi came home to find his wife on the computer, typing furiously... well... as furiously as one can with only two fingers.

"Hey," he said. "Whatcha up to?"

"Deadline!" she cried quickly, not even looking back. "I forgot that I promised Teletha to do a blog on those new slips she's selling and it's due in fifteen minutes!"

Keiichi checked the clock. "Are you almost done or just starting?"

"I need a better adjective than 'spankious!'" she cried.

"That's not even a word," he told her.

She turned and growled at him. "If it was a real word, I wouldn't need a different one, would I?"

"Fair point," he conceded.

He listened to her type for a few more minutes. "By the way," she said, her typing slowing as she diverted some attention to conversation. "Kiyoshi's coming to dinner."

"Cool," he said.

"Yeah, so if you could get started on cooking..." she hinted, her typing accelerating again.

Keiichi smiled and went to the kitchen. "How are you feeling?" he called to her as he started rooting through the cupboards.

He heard the typing pause for a moment. "I'm okay," she said.

The engineer stopped and looked back at the door. "You still have that headache?"

The typing started again. "Yeah," she said. "It's probably just stress or something."

"Is it at least getting better?" he asked.

Her lack of an answer was answer enough.

"It's _worse?_" he called.

She sighed and stopped typing. "Yeah, a little, okay?" The typing started again.

He stepped back into the living room and watched her for a moment. He didn't notice before, but she _looked_ tired. "Maybe you should see a doctor," he suggested softly.

"It's just a headache," she said, not looking back at him.

"What if it has something to do with..."

"I'd know," she cut him off quickly, turning to face him. "I would. It's okay, Keiichi. Really."

He relented and offered her a smile. "Okay. How about I make you some tea before I start dinner."

"That would be great," she admitted.

She turned back to her blog and tried to put Keiichi's... and her... concerns out of her mind. It was just a headache, though it was distracting and annoying. She had other things to worry about right now. Just a few more words and... done!

The goddess hit the "post" key and let out a breath. That was one thing down. Now she could turn her attention to her new project, finding Kiyoshi a boyfriend like Keiichi. Sure, it _seemed_ easy. Kiyoshi was pretty, rich and had a wonderful personality. But that was to be expected of someone who qualified for a wish, which also made the mission that much harder. It meant she had to find someone for her who was like Keiichi, and by Heaven's own estimation, men like Keiichi Morisato were in very very short supply.

As she wondered where to start, Keiichi stepped up behind her and offered her her "Mom to Be" teacup.

"All done?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied, taking a sip and shutting her eyes, hoping the tea would help banish the pain behind her eyes. "Now the hard part."

"Hard part?"

"I promised Kiyoshi I'd help her find a boyfriend," she said.

"Shouldn't be hard," he said, taking a seat nearby to talk to with her.

"The bar is pretty high," she admitted to him.

"Why?"

She took a breath and wondered how much she should tell him. The goddess decided the less he knew, the less awkward it would be. "I think she wants someone like you."

"Why?" he asked with a roll of his eyes.

She let her gaze fall on her husband and smiled. "Because to some girls, a guy like you is a wish come true."

He gave her a look.

"No! I'm serious!" she said. "Guys like you are hard to come by. You have to realize that Heaven decided you were worthy of a wish. Maybe one in five hundred _million_ people get that chance. And you had it _twice_! And what's the first thing you think to wish for? That a goddess would stay with you forever."

"It could have been anyone," he replied.

"But it wasn't," Urd bounced back. "And I'll let you in on a secret, Keiichi. Goddesses don't fall for guys who are unworthy of them."

"So," Keiichi began after a long pause. "All you have to do is find someone who's worthy of a goddess. No sweat, right?"

She sighed theatrically. "Don't suppose you know any?"

"You could set her up with Mischa," he suggested helpfully.

"Mischa's got his eye on someone else," she said mysteriously. "Perhaps the internet will hold the key to my success!"

He arched an eyebrow as his wife turned back to the computer and booted up Firefox.

"Um... yeah," he agreed. "That's a ... really good place to find a great guy... I'm going to go start dinner."

_The Present..._

"Did you know?" Belldandy asked quietly. At his questioning look, she went on. "About Kiyoshi, I mean? That she was Sif's client?"

"Then? No," he said. "Sif explained it later." He looked up and saw Belldandy's confused look. "Believe it or not, the stuff with Kiyoshi is important," he said. "Not for... what happened then... but for what happened later."

Belldandy stood up and went to the window, looking out at the rain as it pelted against the glass. She could feel it coming, the point in Keiichi's story that would be the most painful for her to hear. She loved her sister, and even in the darkest moments of the last few days, she never wished her any harm, didn't want to see her in pain.

She swallowed as she tried to imagine it. The thought made her want to fly to Urd's side and hug her and not let go for a year. Belldandy had spent the last several days weeping for the hard times in Keiichi's life that she had missed, and for the first time she realized that her sister had also suffered, suffered terribly. And she hadn't been there.

If she hadn't been taken, if she had gone on to marry Keiichi and bear his daughter... would she have suffered a similar fate? The thought was enough to make her shudder, and just for a moment, she counted herself lucky.

"What happened then?" she asked softly, willing herself to hear it.

"We had dinner with Kiyoshi," Keiichi told her simply. "Urd showed her the nursery we were building in Peorth's old room, and they talked about men." He chuckled. "To be honest, I didn't pay much attention. Now I wish I did. It was the last time for a long time that I saw her... carefree."

She looked down at him and saw him biting his lip, as if trying to force himself to not speak. "It... It happened the next day..."

_Four years ago..._

_That's it,_ she thought. _I'm calling Sif's cousin._

Her hand shook a bit as she lifted the tea-cup to her lips. The pain hadn't been too bad last night, and she and Kiyoshi were able to talk until nearly midnight, plotting as only a love goddess and her client could.

But when she woke up this morning, the annoying ache had become a throbbing pain in her forehead. She had shooed Keiichi off to work without bringing it up, hoping that a hot bath and some chamomile tea would soothe it, but three hours later she just felt worse.

She stood up and walked to the window, the light from outside reaching through her eyes and squeezing her brain in a vice-like grip. The goddess felt Gersemi trying to get her attention, but through the pain it felt so far away, like she was trying to hear someone shout from across a football stadium.

The goddess rubbed her temples and actually spoke aloud rather than thought. "I'm sorry, honey, what?"

It felt as if someone had slammed into her and wrapped their arms around her. She actually stumbled and fell on her butt as she realized that it wasn't physical, but spiritual. Gersemi had mustered everything she had to touch her mother.

And that's when Urd finally felt it.

The grip was fading away. In a panic she reached out with her spirit and grabbed hold of her, like grabbing the arm of someone falling off a cliff.

_What's going on? What's happening?_ she thought. The pain in her head had intensified in the last few seconds. It wasn't just harder to hear Gersemi, it was harder to _feel_ her. She gasped silently as a sudden, intense pain struck her abdomen as if she'd been kicked in the stomach by Sleipnir. She hit the hard wood floor and rolled onto her side, clutching at her stomach. She felt her grip on Gersemi slipping as her concentration wavered in the pain.

_Elegance!_ she cried in her mind. _Elegance, get her!_

She could feel her angel trying to make a spiritual bond with Gersemi, but for some reason couldn't make it happen. She summoned all the will she could and fought through the pain to grab hold of her again. The goddess could almost see it in her mind's eye, her hands wrapped around her daughter's as Gersemi hung over an abyss...

_The_ abyss.

_I've got you,_ she sent to Gersemi. _I got you, hold on..._

She had a good hold now, but the pain was nearly unbearable. Urd raised her head and saw her cell phone sitting on the kitchen table.

_Just hold on,_ she told her baby. _Mommy's getting help. Hold on..._

She kicked out with her legs and felt them sliding against the polished wood, making it difficult for her to find purchase. She managed to make it a few inches.

Her grip was coming loose!

_No!_ she cried to herself, intensifying her hold on Gersemi. The pain in her head and body seemed to meld together into one constant tide of hurt. She found herself sobbing, crying in fear...

Some part of her mind realized that there were no tears hitting the floor below her, and that the sobbing sounds weren't coming from her throat, but in her mind.

Gersemi was crying. Crying and clinging to her with all her might, but the grip was still coming undone. Urd held tighter but it was as if the arms she was clinging to themselves were melting away.

She howled in fear and reached out, clawing at the wood with her fingernails, breaking them against the polished oak as she pulled herself toward the table. The goddess pushed out with her legs again, and her hand finally found the leg of the table.

Gersemi's sobbing was slowing.

With a grunt, Urd hurled her hand upward and grasped blindly for the phone. She felt her fingers brush against it and heard it fall to the floor next to her. She took a few breaths and opened it, rolling onto her back as another wave of agony crashed over her like a heavy surf.

She hit the speed dial button for Keiichi and listened as the phone rang. The Norn turned her attention inward and tried to regain her grip on Gersemi. The child's spirit was running through her fingers like warm water from a spilt pitcher, and she struggled to grasp all of it. She could barely hear her anymore.

Keiichi's voicemail answered.

She screamed and hit a speed dial button at random, collapsing against the floor as it dialed.

_Elegance,_ she thought in desperation. _Elegance, bond with her. Become her angel. Save her! Please save her!_

The angel tried. Urd could see in her mind's eye the angel taking the wisps of her mistress's child and try to meld with it, but there was nothing. No ethereal glow, no sign that Gersemi was accepting her. Tears ran down World of Elegance's face as the angel realized it wasn't going to work.

"Hello?"

Urd's gasps took on a new urgency as her eyes found the phone on the floor next to her.

"Hello? Urd? You there?"

The goddess swallowed and gasped out a few words.

"Sa...Sayoko..." she breathed into the phone. "Book... camera shark..."

888

Sayoko looked down at the phone in puzzlement. "Urd?" she tried again, craning her neck to see if anyone in the meeting she had just ducked out of was looking through the glass walls at her. "Urd? Are you okay?"

"Tollbooth... harp...harp... help... help...help..."

A ball of ice clawed into the girl's throat as she started quickly for the elevator. "Urd? Urd? I'm on my way, okay? Just stay on the line!"

She quickly hit a button and opened a second line. Sayoko was on the other side of town from the temple, and it would take forty-five minutes for her to get there. Urd needed help now. She dialed and waited for Keiichi to pick up as she jump into the elevator and mashed the button for the ground floor.

She got the machine. Keiichi must be flying. She closed the line and bit her lip. Megumi and Toshio were in Kyoto all week for a Ren Fair. There was only one other person who might be close enough to help. She opened the line to Urd to check on her first.

"Urd? Are you still there? What's wrong?"

"HELP ME! HELP ME!" the goddess was sobbing into the phone now, the only two words she could think to say.

Sayoko opened the other line and dialed.

888

The limo screeched to a halt outside the temple, and two figures leaped out, the taller one trailing the shorter one, much to his disconcertion. But Teletha had no intention of slowing down. It had taken ten minutes for them to get here after Sayoko's call for help. She heard sirens in the distance, and hoped that the ambulance was on its way... or the police... or the fire department. Sayoko's call had been rather vague, so Teletha just called everyone she could think of.

She reached the top step and pulled at the door, but it was locked and wouldn't budge. Looking over her shoulder at her companion, she called for help.

"Sagara san! It's locked!"

A quick kick from her new bodyguard sent the door smashing inward, and the scarred man, gun raised, entered the residence.

"Urd!" Teletha called as she rushed inside. "Urd? Where are you?"

Sagara stepped into the kitchen and knelt next to the table. A cell phone sat on the ground next to traces of fresh blood. Faint scratches in the wood suggested someone crawled or was dragged away. His keen eyes followed the trail, and he raised his weapon. He could still hear his boss calling for her friend.

"Tessatarossa san," he called quietly, and Teletha turned toward him, catching sight of him from down the hall. He pointed toward the living room. "In there."

The CEO made for the room, but Sagara held her back. "Me first," he said. He stepped toward the room and past the threshold, sweeping the room with his weapon. He must have found something, because Teletha saw him pause and kneel down, holstering his weapon as he went.

"Over here!" he called to her, and Teletha rushed forward. The sirens were closer now, coming up the driveway.

When Teletha entered the living room, she found Urd lying on her back near the TV, her eyes closed as if asleep, and her fingers covered in blood from where she had clawed her way toward the television.

"Urd!" Teletha cried, kneeling next to her friend. "Can you hear me? Wake up!"

_The Present..._

Skuld listened closely as the rain drops struck the roof over her head. Peeking through the small crack she left in the closet door, she scanned the old woman's bedroom again, half-suspecting that Ameko would burst through the door at any moment. She rubbed her arms and let out a nervous breath.

That god, Vakarine, said help was coming. She just had to wait. Then they could go and find Oneesama and Urd. All she had to do until then was stay out of sight.

She hoped the others were okay and wondered who put the barrier up and why. Perhaps Oneesama took Keiichi there and walled up the place so Ameko couldn't get to them. But why would they leave her locked out? It was strange.

None of this made sense. She felt like someone who had walked into a theater in the middle of the movie and now had no idea what was happening. Vakarine hadn't answered any of her questions, though she spent a good bit of time answering his. It occurred to her that she didn't even know what he was, though the gruff demeanor made her think he was a Valkyrie.

Her head shot up as the first sounds of footsteps in the hallway made their way through the wall and to her ears. She swallowed as they grew closer and raised her hands, ready to cast a spell.

She heard a long creak as the bedroom door opened, and the goddess took a deep breath.

"Skuld?" an unfamiliar man's voice whispered. "Are you here? Vakarine sent us to help you."

She let out a breath and looked through the crack in the door. Sure enough, a god with short, curly brown hair was looking around the room, searching for her.

Skuld opened the door, and the god spun to her. She stepped forward and smiled. "Am I glad to see you," she confessed.

"Are you hurt?" the god asked.

She shook her head. "No. Just a little freaked out." The goddess gave him a once over. "I'm Skuld."

"Esus," he said with a nod. Skuld heard the bedroom door open behind her. "My associates, Leyak and Ipos."

Skuld turn to say hello and thank them for coming to her rescue, but stopped short when she saw them.

Standing in the doorway before her were two demons.


	37. Ruins: Part Two

Disclaimer: Not mine. Etc.

Ah! My Goddess!

Haloes

Chapter 37

Ruins Part 2

_"Does the pain weigh out the pride?_

_And you look for a place to hide?_

_Did someone break your heart inside?_

_You're in ruins..."_

Green Day

_"21 Guns"_

"Making their waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay the only way they know how!" the drunken goddess crooned as she lay on her back on the kitchen table, her finger pointed at the ceiling. "That's just a little bit more than the law will allow!"

Standing off to the side, Urd rubbed her temples and threw a glare at her mother. "I can't believe that I actually know less than when this started," she bit out.

Hild shrugged, her index finger running lightly up and down the chord on Sif's viola, keeping her in a pliable state. "Too late to turn back now," she pointed out.

Was it? Urd swallowed in shame as her eyes went back to her friend. The gravity of what she was doing fell upon her like a piano dropped from a tenth-story window in an old Looney Toons short. Sif had always been there for her, had opened the door to a cure for her aphasia, and now, while she knew the blonde had lied to her, she also knew that whatever it was she had done, it had been in support of her husband.

And she trusted Keiichi. Implicitly.

"Stop it," she whispered to Hild.

The demoness gave her a surprised look. "You're giving up?" she asked. "Already?"

"I'm not giving up," Urd told her. "I'm changing my mind. I don't want to do this anymore. Now stop it."

"She's been _lying_ to you," Hild reminded her in a soft hiss.

"I know," Urd replied evenly. "And just from what little I've heard, she and Keiichi have crossed some line. That doesn't mean I have to follow them over it."

Hild glared at her for a moment before turning to Sif. "Sif, honey? Did you lie to Urd?"

"Stop it!" Urd hissed at her.

"Oh, boy, did we," Sif announced. "You see," she began, holding a wavering finger in the air. "After... after she finally came back... Keiiiii... Keiiiiichiiii... that guy... he was just _terrified_ that if she knew what had really happened... that she would just go bonkers again!"

"Sif! Shut up!" Urd commanded.

"No, Sif!" Hild countermanded. "Tell us more."

The blonde sighed. "I don't want to," she moaned. "It's not my fault. I didn't want to. It's not fair, don't you see? I lost everything..."

Urd paused as she heard her friend start to cry.

"All I ever wanted... was to help," Sif sobbed drunkenly. "But..." She held a finger up again, as if pointing to some mountaintop in the middle-distance. "Sacrifice... is the role of a goddess... It's what I thought Belldandy would want..." She turned her moist eyes to them. "I didn't want them to hurt Keiichi... not after everything he'd been through." She turned back to the ceiling and sniffled. "Please stop," she whispered quietly.

Hild flinched as Urd grabbed her arm and yanked downward, sending Ameri to the floor. The viola, free of its prison, disappeared, and they heard Sif give a quick intake of breath as she came to her senses again.

Urd rushed to the musician's side and looked down at her. "Sif? Are you okay?"

Sif wouldn't look at her. She stared to the right, at the wall, and refused to meet her friend's gaze.

"Oh, Urd," she whispered. "How could you?"

The Norn felt like she had been punched in the stomach. "I'm sorry," she said.

She stepped away as Sif suddenly sat up, still refusing to face the Norn. "You want to know? That much? You want to know so badly you would rape another goddess's mind?" Sif finally turned to her, her eyes alight with devastated humiliation and anger.

Urd flinched at the accusatory tone, knowing she deserved it. "I guess so," she whispered.

"Very well," she replied, her tone taking on an official haughtiness to it. "Where would you like me to start?"

The question threw Urd. "At the beginning, I suppose."

"My beginning, Keiichi san's beginning or _her_ beginning?" Sif retorted with an angry nod toward Hild.

"Sif..."

"I assume once I tell her everything, I am free to go?" Sif asked, directing her question to Hild.

The demoness shrugged. "It's your barrier. As far as I'm concerned, once you drop it, you can do whatever you like... assuming you allow me to do the same."

Sif directed her glare at her friend. "Very well. My part in it begins with Kiyoshi Takeda..."

_Four years ago..._

"I'm afraid I'm having a hard time understanding your reasoning," Athena asked from her position at the raised center dais. "A mortal is granted only _one_ wish. Whether or not that wish brings them happiness depends on what they make of it, yes?"

Standing before the triad of judges, Sif took a breath. She had anticipated this question and had prepared for it. "Traditionally, that has been how the instructions surrounding the granting of wishes has been interpreted, however, that is placing the form over the substance. The purpose of granting wishes to the mortals judged deserving of them is to grant them happiness that has eluded them unfairly through some failing on Heaven's part. If that wish fails to bring them happiness, it is easy to wipe our hands of it and say 'we lived up to our part,' but in the end the mortal is still unhappy and Heaven has not altered that situation."

Sif's eyes darted to the right as the goddess sitting to Athena's left spoke. Tsunami, she knew, was a former granter and known for her compassion. If anyone was to vote on her side, it would be her. But she was still a judge and had a responsibility to question her aggressively.

"Every mortal is issued the standard disclaimer," the blue-haired goddess reminded her. "They are to be given anything they want, but they only get one wish. Why is it then, as you argue, that Heaven bears some measure of responsibility if the wish does not live up to their expectations?"

"Because our very arrival places them in an agitated state of mind," Sif replied. "The average time between a goddess's appearance to a mortal and a wish being granted is five minutes. In that time, a mortal is being confronted with truths they never anticipated having to face and a situation they could never have comprehended before. How can we possibly assume then that they are in a state of mind to think clearly? We are not talking about giving someone a completely different wish. We are suggesting that a wish, ill-spoken, can and should be corrected to ensure the wisher's satisfaction. In the case before us, Kiyoshi Takeda _knew_ what she wanted but phrased her wish awkwardly. In the end, her wish, as stated, was fulfilled, but the wish she thought she was making was not."

"Your Honors, if I may?" a new voice from behind Sif spoke up, causing the goddess to turn.

Athena nodded. "The council recognizes the representative from the Earth Help Center."

Sif's eyes tracked Peorth as the goddess stepped forward to speak. "Such a situation is not without precedent," she began. "Approximately nine years ago, a wish was granted to a mortal named Keiichi Morisato."

"Yes," the god on Athena's right, Dellingr, murmured. "We are all quite familiar with the unusual case of Keiichi Morisato."

"Then you know that in that case, the wish he originally made was... incomplete, and in fact it was the yearning to complete that wish that prompted his qualification for a second wish from my own hand."

"Are you saying that the wish you granted to Keiichi Morisato was not a unique wish standing on its own merits... but a way to correct his previous wish?" Tsunami asked.

"That was my feeling of the situation," Peorth told her. "In the end, I believe he felt his original wish had been fully granted and that the wish I granted him led to it. In that light, it is not unreasonable to say that a precedent for granting a 'supplemental wish' has been established."

Athena sat back and thought on this for several moments. "Very well. I believe we've heard enough. The council will adjourn for now and bring you our decision as soon as one is reached." She rose to her feet, prompting the other deities on either side of her to do the same. "The council thanks you for your time."

"Thank you," Sif replied with a formal bow. She waited for the three council members to leave the chamber before rising again. She smiled. "I think that went well."

She turned and found Peorth walking away. "Peorth kun!"

The French goddess stopped and turned as Sif rushed to her, stopping to bow in thanks. "I just wanted to say thank you," Sif told her. "What you said helped."

Peorth smiled. "It was my pleasure, cheri." Her voice turned wistful. "I happen to believe that if we intend to grant a mortal their heart's desire... we should do whatever it takes to see it done."

Sif smiled uncomfortably, knowing the source of Peorth's conviction.

"How are they, incidentally?" Peorth asked casually.

"Well," Sif told her. "They are expecting their first child, a girl."

Peorth smiled, a sincere expression of her happiness for them. "I'm glad," she said. She paused for a moment, and Sif dove into it.

"Peorth kun," she began. "I want you to know... I don't agree with what you did, but I understand why and what you were hoping to accomplish. I know you meant well."

The other goddess chuckled sadly. "I'm glad someone does. I really am happy for them. I just wish I had known the outcome beforehand. If I had honestly thought it would turn out all right... I would never have..."

"I know," Sif told her. "Perhaps... you should talk to them."

"I'm not welcome there anymore," Peorth explained sadly. "I can only hope one day things will cool off enough for me to try again." She smiled tightly. "C'est la vie."

Before Sif could continue, another voice broke in. "Sif? Do you have a moment?"

Turning, the blonde saw Freya standing there. She stiffened in the presence of her boss and nodded quickly. "Of course, Freya sama!" She turned back to Peorth. "Will you excuse me?"

"Of course," Peorth told her. "And Sif... Good luck."

"And to you," Sif replied with a short bow. As Peorth walked away, Sif turned to the older goddess who was waiting graciously for her to finish. "I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize, Sif," Freya told her. "Shall we walk?"

"In_deed_," the blonde agreed, falling into step with her boss as the elder granter led her out of the council chambers and out into the marble outdoor walkway that overlooked Central Dogma's courtyard. The sun was shining brightly today, and the verdant green courtyard was teeming with people.

"I was impressed by your arguments today," Freya told her without preamble. "Your interpretation of the granting instructions is... radical," she finally settled on. "But not, I believe, in a bad way."

"Thank you, Freya sama," Sif replied, mindful of her place and saying no more.

"That you initiated such an argument without a request from the grantee is the kind of dedication to our purpose that marks a truly great granter," Freya went on. "Your record in other respects has been quite distinguished."

"Thank you, Freya sama," Sif repeated.

"And it is because of your distinguished service and your dedication to your clients that I have decided to approach you with a new assignment," Freya went on, stopping at a balcony overlooking the Styx.

"It is my role to serve, and I shall do so in whatever capacity your require, Freya sama," Sif spoke the standard reply from memory.

Freya turned from the view and smiled. "Sif, this is not an order. This assignment is strictly voluntary, but one of the utmost importance."

Sif nodded, wondering what mission the head of the Help Line could give her that would be so solemn. Whatever it was, the goddess resolved to accept it. Any mission so important that it required volunteers must be vital to Heaven itself.

The elder goddess turned back to the view. "Night is falling on my term as director of the Help Line, Sif," she began. "I have done my best to leave it better than when I found it. I would like my last act as director to be in the spirit of this effort."

"I understand, Freya sama," Sif responded automatically.

Freya turned to her and arched an eyebrow. "Do you?"

Sif froze. "Well... truthfully... no, Freya sama. Is there some change in the Help Line you would like me to help you make before you retire? Or perhaps, do you wish to grant a wish yourself as a final gesture?"

The director smiled. "Sif, it is my intent to leave the Help Line better than when I found it. To do that I must make certain that the next director is one who will do the job better than I have."

"And you would like me to help you find this person," Sif concluded.

"Sif, you _are_ this person," Freya told her.

The blonde froze. "Um... What?"

Freya rested a hand on the young goddess's shoulder. "I intend for you to succeed me as director of the Goddess Help Line.

Sif gasped, her hand going to her chest as she tried to catch her breath. "M...Me?"

"Yes," Freya replied, amused by the young woman's reaction. "I can think of no one else who could care for our girls and our clients better than you."

"I... I... I am honored!" Sif cried. "And moved! Deeply moved that you would entrust me with so much, Freya sama!"

As she continued to gush her thanks, she heard her cell phone ring. Snatching it up on instinct, she saw Keiichi's name in the "Call from" box and opened it.

"Keiichi san! You'll never believe what..." She trailed off as the mortal's words came spilling over her own, her jaw dropping at the message they were laying at her feet. "Keiichi san! Stay there! I'll get Nyd and be there as soon as we can! Just stay with her!"

She shut the phone and turned to Freya's concerned visage.

"There's something wrong with Urd," Sif explained quickly.

888

Sif had to rush to keep up with her cousin as Nyd stalked down the hospital corridor as if he owned it. Keiichi's frantic call had been short on details, so she had had none to offer Nyd in way of explanation or of what to expect. All she knew was that Urd had collapsed and wouldn't wake up.

Physiologically speaking, goddesses were quite different from mortals, so the idea that some mortal doctor would try to treat Urd was frightening. Confronted with completely different vital signs, they might resort to something drastic, like cutting her open, and that meant the two of them had to move quickly.

When they found the room they were looking for, Nyd opened the door, and Sif found what she thought she might. Two mortal doctors were debating what to do while Keiichi sat next to a bed occupied by an unconscious Urd Morisato.

Nyd didn't miss a beat. Stepping toward the unconscious goddess, he summarily dismissed the other two physicians as he pulled out a pair of translucent gloves.

"Thank you, gentlemen," he said quickly. "I think we can take it from here."

"Who are you?" the first mortal doctor asked.

"Mrs. Morisato's personal physician," Nyd replied, pulling open one of Urd's eyes and checking her pupils.

"Well, that's all well and good, but here..."

This wasn't the time for comparing dick sizes, and Keiichi knew it. Taking both men's arms, he practically dragged them to the door and pushed them out.

"You heard him!" he cried. "Out!" He slammed the door shut and locked it.

"Thank you, Mr. Morisato," Nyd muttered, intent on his examination of Urd.

Sif and Keiichi closed the window blinds as Nyd took up a position to Urd's right. He placed his left hand on Urd's right arm and his right on her leg. Then, closing his eyes, he turned his hands over and held them into the air as if lifting something. A glowing three-dimensional image of Urd floated into the air before them.

"Okay," Nyd muttered. "Let's see what we can see..."

Moving his hands as if conducting a symphony, Nyd manipulated the image, zooming in on potential trouble-spots such as the goddess's head and heart.

"Her mind has shut itself off," he announced quietly, still deep in thought. "The synapses are firing just enough to keep her going, like she left the pilot light on."

Zooming out for a moment, he regarded the image critically. "Huh," he remarked in puzzlement.

"What?" Keiichi asked, seizing on the comment. "What is it?"

Nyd didn't respond. He snapped his fingers and waved his hand to the right. The model went from shades of yellow to hues of blue and green. He snapped his fingers again, and the image went gray.

Sif swallowed as she realized what her cousin was searching for but not finding.

"Cousin?" she asked quietly.

He waved three more times, changing the spectrum each time, and took a breath.

"What?" Keiichi asked, sensing the change. "What is it?"

Nyd cleared his throat. His attention on the physician-god, Keiichi didn't realize that Sif was hugging him until her arms were wrapped around him.

"Keiichi," she whispered. "Keiichi, I'm so sorry."

_The Present..._

"It's funny," Sif said, her eyes cast down at the floor. "How Fate can conspire with Fortune to see to it that the happiest day of your life must share a memory with one of the worst." She looked up and found Urd leaning over the sink. "He... didn't truly understand at first," she went on. "Mi... such things... are much more commonplace here on Earth. He didn't understand that... that it almost would have been easier if it had happened _after_ she was born..."

Urd's hands gripped the edge of the sink so hard her knuckles were turning white.

"Your mind had shut down to protect you," Sif explained. "Like a surge protector. Or... perhaps it was World of Elegance who put you down, a coma so deep that conscious thought and memory was impossible. Nyd said... such things were common for... others."

"I don't remember it," Urd confessed in a whisper.

"That was the point," Sif reminded her. "Even when you finally did wake up, it was like you were sleepwalking. You talked, but it was like... like you were in a trance. Sometimes you would say things that didn't make sense..." She shook her head. "Until we realized you were speaking from a distant memory, your mind placing you in a time long before this thing had happened."

Urd took a deep breath and shut her eyes.

"How much do you remember of that time?" Sif asked her.

"I don't," Urd admitted weakly. "I remember... _it_... happening... But I don't remember what came after. Not until..."

_"It's okay now," Keiichi whispered to her, his arms wrapped around her. "Everything's going to be okay now..."_

Urd cleared her throat, her hand going to the top button of her shirt and pulling it open, trying to find air.

"Keiichi san was strong, Urd," Sif went on quietly. "He had to be. Most mortal couples to whom this tragedy happens can cling to one another, but he had no one..."

_Four years ago..._

"Urd?" he whispered. "Urd?"

He sat there, waiting for her to acknowledge him. He knew by now it could take a minute or two, almost like waiting for the screensaver on a really old computer to quit. You just had to be patient.

Her eyes turned toward him, vacant, dull. There was no shine in them anymore, no mischievous glimmer. It was like a doll's eyes. It made him shiver.

"I'm sorry, Keiichi," she whispered slowly. "Is it time for work?"

"No, Angel," he whispered back. "It's breakfast time. I made you some soup, okay?"

"Oh," she said, and a puzzled expression fell over her eyes. "Is Belldandy sick? She usually cooks."

He swallowed dryly. Keiichi had given up trying to explain where Belldandy was after the fourth day, which had been about a week after she had come out of her coma. That was nearly a month ago now.

"She's not here right now," he said instead.

"Oh, okay," Urd whispered.

He placed the bowl in front of her, and she automatically took it in her hands, sipping loudly. When she was finished, he wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin.

"Thank you, Keiichi," she whispered.

Keiichi sat back and watched her for several moments, waiting for her to do something, move, speak _something_... But it was like she had been for the last month. Her mind was on autopilot, reacting only when prompted and doing so by pulling things randomly out of her head that might fulfill the need. If he didn't sit down and remind her, she wouldn't even eat.

How fast things could go to shit. A month ago they had it all. Now... He swallowed and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling.

Now it was like the whole world was ending.

Nyd was confident she would come out of it... eventually. But that wouldn't be the end. If anything, Nyd had said, what was to follow would be much much worse.

How much worse could it be, he wondered? At least if she came out of this walking coma, they could face what had happened to Gersemi together, talk about it, hold each other, cry together. Right now there was nothing.

He swallowed back tears.

_Don't you cry,_ he told himself. _Do you hear me? You can't afford it right now. Urd needs you to be strong. Don't cry..._

He closed his eyes, his hand going to his forehead as he took a breath. He just wanted to... just... he didn't know.

_Something! Anything!_

_But _don't_ cry..._

He folded his hands in front of his face and watched her as she stared off into space. It was almost like the time she was paralyzed. He had to bathe her, feed her, dress her, but at least back then she could talk to him, call him an idiot.

He would do anything right now to hear her call him an idiot.

But she wouldn't. He usually talked to her, tried to establish some kind of conscious connection, but whenever he paused to wait for an answer, she would only move her head a few degrees and reply with, "I'm sorry, what?"

He just couldn't do it this morning, so he watched her. Maybe she would get uncomfortable with the silence and say something.

The knock at the front door tore through the house like a gunshot, and he jumped in his seat. Urd didn't even blink.

"Coming!" he called. Despite this promise, he sat there a moment later, watching her before rising to his feet and starting slowly for the door.

When he opened the door, he found Mischa on the other side, leaning on his cane with one hand and holding a covered dish with the other. The Russian stood there in silence for a moment, obviously uncomfortable.

"Moreysaw-toe," he said in greeting. "I come to check on you."

Keiichi nodded, half in thanks for the gesture, half in simple acknowledgement. "She's um... the same," he told him quietly.

Mischa nodded and cleared his throat. "Ah," he said simply. He held the dish up. "I... ah... I made kasha for you," he said. "I... don't know if appropriate, but... I thought... it is hearty and easy to eat and maybe... if you did not have to cook... I..."

"Thanks, Mischa," Keiichi said quietly.

The engineer nodded again, thankful that Keiichi had cut him off from his awkward speech on the benefits of porridge.

"Moreysaw-toe," he began again. "I know... I know this will sound... er... not good," he said quietly. "But... bad things that happen like this... they fade away... after time. It will be good again."

"I'm having a hard time believing that right now, Mischa," Keiichi told him quietly. "I just..." He shook his head. "I just keep going over it in my head. Wondering about the signs. I asked her to see a doctor, and she said she was okay, and what the hell do I know, right?"

"Bad things happen, Moreysaw-toe," Mischa said sympathetically. "Is no one's fault that they happen. It just happen."

"It shouldn't have happened here," Keiichi told him. "Not like this."

"You want company?" Mischa asked. "I can stay. Talk. Like the bros."

Keiichi let out a short chuckle, his fingers running through his hair.

_Don't cry..._

"No," he said instead. "I'm okay."

Mischa didn't look like he believed it, but nodded anyway. "Okay. I come tomorrow and bring more kasha," he said. "You eat. Keep you strong."

"Yeah," Keiichi promised absently. "Yeah, I will."

The Russian gave him one last nod and turned to go. Keiichi closed the door and brought the bowl of porridge into the kitchen.

He wondered briefly how well it would reheat and stuck it in the refrigerator. A sound in the hallway made him turn, and he found Urd standing in the kitchen door.

"Is Belldandy back yet?" Urd asked.

"No," he told her evenly. "Not yet."

"Oh." With that, she turned and walked into the living room. Keiichi watched her walk away and let out a breath.

_Don't cry._

888

Keiichi sat down in front of the TV and turned it on, quickly turning the volume low so that it wouldn't wake his wife down the hall. He looked absently at the clock as he flipped through the channels, almost eleven.

It was hard to sleep next to Urd now. She would lay there, obediently waiting to fall asleep, and once she did...

The first time it happened, he thought he had been dreaming. Then he thought maybe everything that had happened was the dream. But no, it was neither. She would lay there, asleep... singing the lullaby she used to sing to Gersemi every night before bed, the tones coming in a whisper under her breath. She would wake up the next morning with no indication that she remembered anything and blissfully unaware that she had been emotionally gutting him for half the night.

So he had taken to putting her to bed and watching TV for a bit before joining her again.

He was tired, tired all the time now. It wouldn't be much longer, he knew, before Sif would arrive again. The goddess had promised she'd return to help, but she had assignments in Heaven that had to be completed before she could come down and stay for any duration, and she had told him it would be better to get those done and out of the way now, while Urd was still... like this... than later when she would be much worse.

"That, Keiichi san, is when you will truly need help," she had warned him.

He found an old Harry Potter movie and settled in, intent on waiting an hour or so before going to bed.

He blinked, and suddenly found Harry Potter a year older. The clock now read one a.m. He had fallen asleep. Standing, he started down the hall, but stopped suddenly as a voice floated toward him on the back of the darkness. Singing.

But it wasn't Urd.

Swallowing nervously, he crept forward and slowly pulled the bedroom door open.

It was hard to surprise Keiichi Morisato at this point after everything that had happened, but Hild had always had a knack for it. He stood there, watching as CEO of the Demon Realm lay on her side next to her daughter, holding her gently as she softly sang a haunting lullaby not too unlike the one Urd had sung.

He had trouble making out too much in the darkness, but there was something decidedly different about Hild. Gone was the low-cut dress and flashy jewelry. She was dressed entirely in black, even the stones in her earrings were cut from onyx, and the vial-seal she constantly wore around her neck was missing.

She looked up and caught sight of him. Her voice trailed off, and she slowly rose to her feet, walking silently past him into the hallway.

Keiichi shut the door and turned, following the demoness down the hall and into the kitchen before daring to speak, still wary of waking Urd.

"What are you doing here?" he asked point-blank.

"Tending to my daughter," Hild replied evenly as she opened the cupboard and found a bottle of sake. "Drink with me, Keiichi."

"Tea," he stated his answer. "I don't want to drink."

"Fair enough," she replied, pulling a pair of tea-cups from the shelf.

He sat down at the table and regarded her warily. Urd had warned him that she couldn't be trusted... ever... that things didn't work in Heaven and Hell the way they worked here on Earth. Was she here as a concerned mother or was she still, even now, trying to manipulate things?

"Keiichi, what happened here?" she asked quietly, her back to him.

For some reason the question, one hundred percent understandable, hit him like a punch in the gut. Perhaps because he had been asking himself that same question for a month.

"I don't know," he told her. "I wasn't here when it happened." He took a deep breath before continuing. "I keep... going over it in my mind... It just doesn't make any sense."

Hild put the pot of water on the stove and turned to him. For the first time, Keiichi could see that the glimmer in her eyes, the same he saw so often in Urd's, was also absent.

"What did your doctor friend say?" Hild asked.

Keiichi sighed. "He said the only thing he could think of was that because Gersemi was the product of three worlds... that... It was just too complicated. They just... they just couldn't mesh. He said he's seen it in a few other mixed pregnancies."

"I find that hard to believe," Hild told him quietly.

"Why?"

"Because _my_ granddaughter would be stronger than that," she told him. "Much stronger." She took a few paces from the stove, her hands on her hips as she worked through it in her head. "Pound for pound, strictly talking about spiritual strength, Urd makes your average first-class goddess look like a bed-ridden old lady." She shook her head. "It's just hard to believe..."

"Bad things happen," Keiichi rationalized.

Hild said nothing for a moment. "You named her Gersemi?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Urd's idea. Why?"

"Nothing," Hild replied distantly. "I just... didn't realize she had even had a name."

Keiichi took a breath. "I never... got a chance to know anything about her," he said. "She would commune with Urd... somehow... I never really understood it except that it was one of those goddess things."

"Oh, yes," Hild whispered. "When I carried Urd, we would speak all the time." She paused. "She didn't hate me back then. Didn't know me well enough, I suppose."

Keiichi said nothing.

"Do you think I did this?" Hild finally asked.

Keiichi looked at her in surprise. "What?"

There was something in the older demon's eyes, the knowledge that past sins would condemn her for this event without benefit of a trial.

He tried to envision Hild doing something like that and couldn't picture it, even at her most twisted and sadistic, it was a bridge too far.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I could see you doing it to someone else... but not to Urd."

It was a backhanded slap, but Hild took it. "There are some lines, Keiichi, that you simply don't cross." She took the teapot off the stove and poured for them. "I never told you this... but I'm glad you and she got married."

"Why?" he asked.

She smiled. "You really want to know?"

He nodded.

The demoness handed him his tea before continuing. "The day Urd told me she wanted to be a goddess, I knew I had lost her. As bad as other goddesses might think she is, she doesn't have that... that _need_ for cruelty. She would never fit in in the demon realm. Well," she amended. "Enough perhaps to live among them as she does now in Heaven... but never enough to be truly comfortable."

Keiichi absorbed this, and the demon queen continued.

"Likewise in Heaven, she will always be inferior," she said. "Looked down upon by goddesses with only half her strength and talent, and she would always feel that." Her eyes found him. "But you... here... you are the ironic compromise. You, like all mortals, walk the line between light and shadow. You may want to be a good person, but you will occasionally slip into darkness. Just like she does. The difference is, here on Earth, that's normal. A man like you, Keiichi, is the closest she will ever get to having someone who truly understands her. That couldn't happen in the Demon Realm, and it can't happen in Heaven."

He was silent as other questions came to the fore. "Will she ever be her old self again?" he asked.

"Yes," Hild said quickly. "With time. The wound will heal. They always do. The question you should worry about is, 'how long?'"

The young man found her eyes free of malice as she continued. "Because, Keiichi, she may get better a month from now, a year from now... or she might not recover in your lifetime."

_The Present..._

Urd hung onto the counter for dear life and found something else for her mind to latch onto. "_You_ were here?" she asked pointedly.

"Yes, I was," Hild told her frankly. Her eyes narrowed as she watched her daughter. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Urd bit out.

"We can stop," Sif offered.

"No," Hild and Urd said simultaneously.

"She's going to break," Sif argued toward Hild.

"I _want_ her to break," the demoness replied quietly.

The blonde looked at her horror. "What kind of..." She bit her lip. "You're just a regular monster, aren't you?"

Hild was across the room, her eyes inches from Sif's, within a second. "No, my dear, I am an incredibly _powerful_ monster, and I suggest you start remembering that."

"Both of you shut up!" Urd ground out between clenched teeth as she concentrated on breathing over the sink. She had never had a full accounting of the events just after her daughter's death, and hearing it was pushing her further and further to the edge. It was only sheer will and curiosity that kept her from tears.

Hild rose to her full height and stepped back from Sif. "Please continue, Sif chan," she invited.

"No," Sif told her, jumping to her feet. "I don't know why you would want to break her mind like that, but I refuse to be a part of it!" She widened her stance and raised her hands. "And if I must fight you to prevent you from forcing me to assist you then so be it!"

"Sif, it's okay," Urd breathed.

"It's _not_ okay!" Sif shot back. "This is what we've been trying to prevent for _four years_!"

"Maybe you shouldn't have," Urd told her.

Hild and Sif looked at her in surprise, watching her leaning over the sink as she held onto sanity. "Maybe I don't want to live a life where I can't even say my own daughter's name. Maybe going over the edge is worth it. Now... keep... going..."

Sif regarded her carefully for a moment, wondering what she was going to say to Keiichi when this was over.

"Very well."

_Four years ago..._

Keiichi lifted the spoonful of kasha and wondered if it was worth the risk to try it. Lord only knew what kind of cook Mischa was. Sighing and giving up, he tossed the spoon back in the bowl, causing a drop of the thick sludge to splash onto the table next to it.

He let out a breath and looked at the ceiling. They were going to need groceries soon, and if Sif hadn't arrived by then, he was going to have to ask Megumi to come over and watch Urd for him while he went out.

The engineer knew that if his wife were herself, she'd bristle at the idea that she needed a babysitter, probably smack him on the back of the head.

_I miss her_, he thought.

_Don't cry._

A knock at the door tossed him from his thoughts, and he shook his head. "C'mon, Mischa," he grumbled. "Let me choke down the first bowl before you bring more."

He opened the door and stepped back a pace as a young woman pushed a tape recorder at his face while a slightly older man started taking pictures.

"You must be Keiichi!" the woman stated quickly. "I'm Kumiko, I'm with JP Weekly, we cover current events in style and entertainment. Are you Keiichi? Is Urd here?"

"Woah, wait!" Keiichi replied, holding his hand up. "Who are you?"

The woman gave a huff as if she were the one being inconvenienced. "I'm from JP Weekly. I'm doing a story on Urd Morisato. I understand a miscarriage is an emotionally trying time, that's why we waited a few weeks, but I was hoping you and your wife... mostly your wife... would be willing to talk about it in a one-on-one interview."

Keiichi blinked, overwhelmed. "Um... wait... No, look, if you want a comment from Whispers, you're going to have to talk to Ms. Teletha Tessatarossa."

He started to close the door, but the woman's foot found its way between it and the wall.

"Please, Mr. Morisato, all I'm looking to do is a tasteful piece on how this tragedy has affected the life and career of one of Japan's top models."

"No," Keiichi told her calmly, fully aware of how wonderful a picture of him punching out a reporter would look on the news stand. "Now please go awa..."

"I promise we'll be sensitive," Kumiko told him quickly. "The people have a right to know when a public figure such as your wife suffers a..."

"That's right!" Keiichi hissed at her. "She's suffering! Now leave her alone!"

"It's not every day a public figure as popular as your wife loses a baby," Kumiko argued.

"Baby?"

The sound of her voice filled his veins with ice water. It was the first hint of emotion he'd heard from her in weeks. Turning, he found Urd standing next to the counter, listening to them.

"Urd?" Keiichi whispered.

The goddess blinked, her hands moving down to her midsection. Her gaze seemed to turn inward, as if searching for something. She looked up at him again, her eyes wide and haunted. Her chest started to heave as she clutched for breath.

"Oh... oh, god," she whispered. "Keiichi..."

He bolted from the door just as Urd started to fall to the floor, kneeling next to her as she started hyperventilating.

"Keiichi! Keiichi! I can't feel her anymore! Why can't I feel her? What... I... Oh, god... Oh, god..."

"It's okay!" he whispered quickly, trying to soothe her. "It's okay." He winced as she grabbed his arm and squeezed hard enough leave marks.

A flash of light brought his attention back to the door where the photographer was snapping pictures from the doorway.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" he shouted at them.

His scream was overwhelmed by one from Urd, who wailed as she clutched her midsection. He turned his attention back to her.

"Urd! Urd!"

She doubled over in anguish, holding herself tight enough to rob herself of breath. Raising her head, she looked up at the ceiling. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?" she screamed.

"Urd, it's going to be okay..."

He watched as Urd suddenly jumped to her feet and started running down the hall. Keiichi climbed to his feet and went after her, hurrying as the sound of breaking wood and glass came rushing down the hallway.

"Urd!" he called as he stopped in the doorway of the nursery. His wife was tearing the room apart. The small changing table in the corner had been upended and the drawers removed.

"Urd!"

"Quiet!" she ordered. He shut his mouth and watched as she stood in the middle of the room, searching every nook and cranny with her eyes. "She's alive."

He blinked in shock. "What?" he whispered.

A smile stretched across her face, and she started to giggle. "She's alive! I can hear her! I can hear her, she's alive!" She laughed.

Keiichi felt a dreadful chill run up the center of his back. "Urd," he whispered. "Urd, listen to me." He licked his dry lips and hated the very idea that he had to say this. "She's gone. Nyd checked you over. Gersemi's..."

She shook her head. "No, no, I can hear her, Keiichi," she told him, begging him to understand it, accept it, believe it, confirm it...

He placed his hands on her shoulders. "Angel... she's not..."

She grabbed his arms. "NO! I CAN HEAR HER! I CAN HEAR HER CRYING! KEIICHI, SHE'S ALIVE! SHE'S ALIVE!"

The engineer, his eyes starting to moisten, grabbed her by the upper arms and shook her violently. "No, she's not!" he cried. "She's gone, Urd! She's GONE!"

She started sobbing. "But I can hear her," she breathed. "She's crying, Keiichi. Please..." She reached up and touched his face. "Please, help me find her. She's in here somewhere. Please." She swallowed her tears and tried to focus her thoughts. "You... You have to trust me, okay? You have to trust me. I know... I know she's alive and she's in here... You have to help me. You have to help me find her. Please, Keiichi..."

He shut his eyes, wanting to believe her, wanting to be as sure as she was that they were all wrong. But it wasn't like that.

_Don't cry. If you cry now, it's over._

"Oh, god, Urd," he whispered. "Please, stop. You have to stop..."

Something came over his wife's eyes, the green shades turning from grief-stricken to hate-filled. She screamed and pushed him away.

"Stay away from me!" she cried. "If you're not going to help me save your daughter's life, then get out of the way!" She turned and started taking the place apart again.

He stepped forward and snagged her wrist. "Urd.."

Wheeling on him, she slapped him and screamed, pushing him to the ground. "GOD DAMN YOU!" she screamed. "I CALLED YOU FOR HELP, AND YOU DIDN'T ANSWER! NOW YOU DON'T EVEN WANT TO LOOK FOR HER? YOU NEVER WANTED HER IN THE FIRST PLACE, DID YOU?"

"Urd!" he gasped. "Oh, god..."

_Don't cry..._

"I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!"

_Don't cry..._

"YOU DID THIS! YOU!"

_Don't cry!_

Out of the blue, a pair of headphones fell over the goddess's head, and she blinked. Her right hand went to her ear, but before she could remove them, her eyes fell shut and she collapsed limply on top of him.

He lay there a moment, unsure of what had happened, but too emotionally exhausted to try to make sense of it. It was only when his eyes found Sif standing over him that it started to come together.

"Sif?" he whispered.

The blonde looked down at him with tears in her eyes. "Enka," she explained.

Listening to his wife snore on top of him, Keiichi took a breath. "How much did you hear?" he asked.

"Enough," Sif told him. "I'm sorry I took so long. I hoped to be here... before this happened."

He lay there for a moment, listening to her breathe. "It's okay," he said quietly.

She leaned over. "Let me help you up..."

"No," he whispered. "Just... Just give me a few minutes, okay?"

Sif nodded. "Okay," she sobbed a whisper. Rising, she bit her lip and turned, walking out the door of the destroyed nursery.

Keiichi took a breath and wrapped his arm around his wife. He could just barely hear the voice of the singer who was keeping the goddess asleep on top of him.

Sif and Nyd had warned him it would be bad. Now he knew. When a mortal woman miscarried, they grieved and moved on. There would be no moving on. Not from this. Not for a long time.

Everything they had been through; Hild, the Titan, Belldandy... it all paled in comparison.

He caught the sob as it reached up from his throat and bit his lip. His other hand reached up and covered his eyes as tears finally sprung to them, and his breath came out in spasms.

_If you cry, it's over,_ a voice in his head reminded him.

_It's already over,_ his own voice replied.

Squeezing his sleeping goddess, Keiichi quietly cried. For Gersemi, for Urd, and for himself.

It was over.

_The present..._

Skuld watched as Esus cleared off the small table in the old woman's bedroom and started setting up equipment from a pair of boxes Leyak and Ipos had brought in. They had been joined by more gods and demons now, bringing the number up to eight, and all of them were armed.

She sat on the bed and watched the blonde work. The young goddess recognized the equipment immediately, of course. It was a wide-band transmitter and receiver, able to communicate to gods working in multiple dimensions and realms without being detected. Nice gear if you could get it.

Esus assembled the gear and frowned as the gauges kept telling him something he didn't want to hear.

"Problem?" another goddess, who had introduced herself as Nuying, asked.

"I can't get a lock," Esus sighed. "Maybe it's the weather here or something..."

Skuld leaned forward. "Can I try?"

The god turned and regarded her for a moment. "Be my guest," he said, moving out of the way.

Skuld took his place and started checking the connections. "Not to keep harping on this," she began. "But could someone tell me what's going on?"

"We're here to help," Ipos spoke up from the window from where he was watching the street. "Isn't that enough?"

"If you were all gods, yeah," Skuld told him pointedly. "If you were all demons, maybe. But a combined group? Come on."

Ipos opened his mouth for a comeback, but Esus raised a hand to bid him to be quiet.

"We have to get to Urd," Esus said. "It's very important to all of Creation that she not be taken away."

"Taken by who?" Skuld asked, typing in a new set of coordinates into the transmitter's keypad.

"The Bonejacker," Ipos growled. "Ameko."

Skuld paused for a moment and looked back at them. "What _is_ she, anyway?" she asked. "Keiichi said she was kind of like a Valkyrie... only worse."

"'Bonejacker' is a slang term," Nuying told her. "For Hild's special operations forces. This one, in particular, is a real nasty one. She's killed..." She stopped and took a breath. "Almighty only knows how many of us."

"And... um... who is 'us?'" Skuld asked pointedly.

"For now, we can't be as forthcoming as we would like," Esus told her. "But I can say that we are the enemy of your enemy. I'm afraid that will have to be enough for now."

Skuld regarded him carefully for a moment before turning back to the transmitter. "For now," she agreed. She took a breath. "Can you stop her?"

Nuying looked at Esus and arched an eyebrow.

"Yeah," the god finally replied. "Yeah, we can. With your help."

"What will you do with Urd after that?" Skuld asked.

"Take her someplace safe," Nuying assured her.

Skuld stood up and gestured to the device. "There you go. You had your settings set for 'data' instead of voice. That's why you couldn't get a stronger lock. It should work now."

Esus looked at the transmitter in astonishment. "Nice. Thanks."

The young goddess blushed. "No problem. So... what next?"

"Nuying is going to stay here and coordinate," Esus said. "Lugus and I will look for your other sister and your brother-in-law. You will take Ipos and the rest to the temple to find Urd."

"And what if Ameko is there?" Skuld asked.

"Then we kill her," Ipos spoke up, fingering the handguard of his carbine.

Esus saw the skeptical look on Skuld's face. "Hey," he said with a disarming smile. "Don't worry. Ipos was a Hellrider... a long time ago... but he's still not the kind of guy to let anyone push him around... even Bonejackers. He'll protect you."

Skuld found herself smiling. "You might need my help finding Oneesama," she said. "Sure I shouldn't go with you instead?"

The god placed his hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed. "This is important, Skuld. Very important. If we don't get to Urd before the Demons do, all of Creation could be in jeopardy."


	38. Ruins: Part Three

Disclaimer: I don't own AMG.

**Ah! My Goddess!**

**Haloes**

**Chapter 38**

**Ruins Part 3**

* * *

"When you're at the end of the road,

And you've lost all sense of control,

And your thoughts have taken their toll,

When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul..."

Green Day

"21 Guns"

* * *

"Was I really that bad?" Urd asked in a whisper as she leaned over the sink. "Did I really... say those things to him?"

Sif looked down at her lap and thought for a few heartbeats before answering.

"Yes," she said finally. "But you weren't yourself. You were... you were torn apart by grief and..." She gave it another second before adding, "... madness."

Urd turned away from the sink and faced her friend. "I don't remember... I don't remember any of it."

"A blessing!" Sif cried, rising to her feet. She took the Norn by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "A blessing that Keiichi and I were _thankful_ for! We understood, Urd. We understood that it wasn't you. It was only your pain. It took control of you, drove you in the only direction it could. Your child was gone," she said in a whisper. "And that could not be explained, could not be accounted for, and your pain couldn't bear that."

Urd broke away from her and turned, her hand going first to her throat, and then her mouth. A moment later, she was bent over the sink, throwing up with a sickening gurgle.

Sif waited while her friend was sick, listening to her sob as another bout of nausea struck her.

"We should stop now," Sif whispered. "Rest and regain your strength."

"No," Urd growled into the sink, strands of spittle leaking from her mouth. "Not yet."

"It only gets worse," Sif told her quietly.

"Then talk about something else," Urd commanded. "What about you?" She asked, directing her comment to the demoness sitting casually in the corner. "What were you doing while I was... while I was like this?"

"I told you, I can't tell you," Hild said.

"Then who could?" Urd bit out. "I need to know."

Hild smiled. "Keiichi could... or... there is one other..." She paused and shook her head. "Oh, Honey, if only you knew..."

_Four years ago..._

As High Inquisitor, Metheus had been expecting this summons for some time. If he was surprised by anything, it was that it took this long to come. A month had passed since the death of Her Majesty's granddaughter, and while he had had no direct orders to investigate, he had been laying the groundwork for when that time came.

And now it seemed that it had.

He adjusted his black cloak as he walked down the hallway toward the palace residence wing. The one-eyed demon wasn't a fan of the garment. The Inquisition tended to wear red cloaks, but Hild had declared a year of mourning, and no demon with any ambition at all chose to not observe it. The only socially acceptable exception were the Hellriders deployed to put down the insurgency in Realm 505, and even they knew enough to wear a black poppy on their uniforms when not in combat.

The two Elites flanking the front door tracked him suspiciously. They knew exactly who he was, knew he had been with their mistress in private hundreds of times before, but it didn't matter. He breathed, therefore he was a threat and should be treated with caution.

Unbidden, the door opened, and one of the Elites nodded toward it. Metheus stepped inside, past the foyer into the sitting room that branched off to the left.

He found her there, sitting at a midnight black grand piano, tapping slowly on the keys. He fell to one knee and bowed to her.

"I exist to serve," he told her formally.

Hild didn't look at him, her eyes cast down on the piano keys. Like him, she was arrayed in black, the only hint of color coming from the gold that framed her onyx earrings. She took a breath and spoke quietly.

"I trust I don't have to explain why you're here," she said.

"No, Majesty," he replied.

"What is your assessment... given the information currently available?" she asked.

"Either your granddaughter's death was an accident... or it was not," he answered. "It would not be the first miscarriage by a demon... but then again... it would be the first for one so powerful."

She shook her head slowly, as if trying to work it out in her mind. "My granddaughter, Metheus," she told him, her eyes finally finding his. "Would not have succumbed so quickly... so easily... with so little warning." She stood up and went to the window, gazing out at the Fire Falls nearby. "I've held this crown for a long time, Inquisitor. I have plotted and been the target of plots and everything about this tells me this is a plot. I don't know how... But that's why I have you."

He waited for her to finish. She turned to him after a moment, and it seemed to him that the youthful leader, the Dark Lady of Hell, had left the room again, leaving an older woman in her place. "I want to know, Metheus," she said. "If this was an accident, I want to know. If it was a plot, I want to know."

Metheus bowed. "It shall be done, Your Majesty." At her wave, he turned and walked out the door. He had a lot of work to do.

888

The squeak of the cork leaving the brandy bottle seemed loud in her ears, and it made her pause. Keiichi was finally asleep down the hall. She knew he'd nod off no matter how much coffee he drank. He'd been up for three days, and Sif, dear sweet loveable stupid Sif had taken his word for it when he said he could stay awake while she did the shopping. Why not? Urd, crazy-pants Urd, was snoring peacefully. Sif would only be out for a bit.

But Urd wasn't crazy. Oh, no. No, it was all clear. It was all clear as day to her. Keiichi and Sif didn't understand, of course. Couldn't understand. Keiichi was a guy. He had no frame of reference, and Sif, that sweet adorable half-wit, didn't know what she knew. No... No, no, no... A mother knew. A. Mother. KNEW.

Gersemi was crying somewhere. She could hear her. She could hear her when she closed her eyes, when she stood still and listened. She was there, just past her sight, past her awareness. She was there, and she. Just. KNEW. that if she reached out far enough... just far enough... she could find her.

She lifted the brandy and closed her eyes as she upended the bottle. The liquid splashed over her as she lay on the pile of baby clothes, toys and furniture she had assembled in the nursery. The brandy fell over her face, her chest, her stomach... drenching her.

Urd was quite sure, yes quite sure... that if Sif or Keiichi knew what she was doing, they'd be a bit upset. But she. Just. KNEW. this would work. It would work. It was easy, so easy a caveman could do it. A caveman could do it easily. A caveman could cross that boundary between worlds, between the temporal and real, physical and metaphysical, life and death. A caveman could do it, she knew...

Because cavemen. Invented. FIRE.

She raised her hand and snapped her fingers. A small wick of flame appeared between her thumb and forefinger.

"Sooooo... eeeeaaassssy..." she sang quietly, staring at the flame. "Sooooo...soooo...easy..."

It had to be slow, you see. She couldn't just blast a hole in her head. No, no, no! Not good at all! Don't be an idiot. BAM! You're dead! Just like that! You see? You see what happens? Do you see what happens when you don't THINK about these things? Do you see what happens when you fail to plan? Don't be an idiot! BAM! And it's over! Good job, idiot! You can't drag her back if you go flying past her into the beyond, now, can you?

But fire... Fire was slow... Fire took its time... Just enough time... Just enough to reach out and grab her and bring her back... Like taking a stroll... Tra-la-la! Nothing to worry about here! Tra-la-la!

"Tra-la-la," she whispered aloud.

It was brilliant. Of course it would work, but she doubted Sif and Keiichi would agree. Sif and Keiichi... She knew what that was about... Oh, yes, she knew. They didn't think she did, but she did, and they should know she did, but they didn't, did they?

She should have seen it before. She kicked herself for not seeing it before. Sif wanted what Urd had, and now she could have it. All she had to do was make sure Keiichi had nothing to hold onto. No Urd, no Gersemi. "Urd was crazy!" she'd say! "Urd wasn't in the right frame of mind!" she'd say.

But that was fine. Perfectly fine. As long as Urd had Gersemi, and Gersemi was out there.

She. Just. KNEW.

Urd started to bring her hand down to her chest when something slammed into her side and knocked her from her pyre. Her hand hit the carpet and slapped the flame out. Opening her eyes, she found Keiichi had tackled her to the floor.

"Urd! What the hell are you..."

He broke off with a stifled cry and a gasp of breath quickly leaving his lungs as Urd's knee found his groin. The exhausted boy rolled off her as he held onto his junk in pain.

The goddess shot to her feet. "Do. You. MIND?" she screamed down at him. "I am TRYING to have a religious experience here!"

"Whaaaa?" Keiichi gasped out.

Urd covered her ears and winced. "Not so loud!" she cried. "You're making her cry again! Stop it! Stop it!"

Keiichi swallowed and slowly rose to his feet. "Urd... Listen..."

"'Listen?'" she hissed. "'Listen?' You won't listen to me! Why should I listen to you?"

"Because you're not yourself," he said, reaching out to her. "Because you're hurt..."

"Hurt," she agreed, nodding quickly like some kind of coked up hummingbird. "Hurt. Yes, I'm hurt. I hurt a lot. You know what hurts, Keiichi? It hurts when your daughter is crying, but your husband won't let you go to her. That hurts."

"Urd," he whispered. "I know. I'm hurting too, okay? But you can't... do whatever it is you think you're doing... It won't work..."

"It's easy," she told him, suddenly offering him a comforting smile. "So easy a caveman could do it. Just a stroll in the park. Tra-la-la!" She turned and hopped up onto the pyre.

Keiichi bit his lip and suddenly blurted the only gambit he could think of. "Okay!" he cried. "Okay! You're right!"

The reversal seemed to confuse the goddess. "I am?"

"You are," Keiichi assured her. "But let's do this: Let's wait for Sif to get back. This way, if something goes wrong... she can... she can help, right?"

"She can help," Urd whispered. "She can help. She can help..." She turned her eyes on him and snorted a laugh, wagging an admonishing finger at him. "You're trying to trick me!"

He shook his head. "No, I'm not. Let's just wait for Sif, and..."

"You are! You're trying to trick me! You think... that... when Sif comes back... you can just put me to sleep again or something... and then you and she can go do all those nasty things I know you're doing when I'm asleep... all that 'man-satisfying' she's been trained to do, right?" Her face fell, and her breathing accelerated. "Because that was the plan, wasn't it?"

"Urd," he whispered. "Listen to me..."

"That's why you're so calm... Because it was part of the plan, and no one panics when things go according to plan, even when that plan is terrifying," she ranted. "But it's okay. Don't panic, Keiichi. Don't panic, my Keiichi. Don't panic. Because I have a plan too... And I can't let you stop me... So..." She reached down suddenly and grabbed his arm. "... I guess that means you're just going to have to come with me..."

"Urd!"

The goddess was suddenly knocked off her feet by a blast of compressed air that ripped apart her hold on Keiichi. She fell and rolled into the far wall.

Keiichi looked to the doorway and found Sif standing there, her arms outstretched. "Keiichi! Are you all right?"

"Yeah," he gasped, gulping in fright at what had just happened. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"Urd?" Sif called. "Are you hurt?"

Lying on her stomach, her faced concealed by her arms, Urd's chest began to rack with sobs. Slowly, her hands rose to her head and covered her ears.

"She won't stop crying," she sobbed. "She won't stop."

"Urd," Keiichi whispered, moving carefully toward his wife.

"I can hear her, can't you understand that?" she sobbed. "Every moment of every day, awake or asleep, I can hear her... Let me go to her... please..."

Sif knelt next to them, her eyes clouded in sadness. "Where Gersemi is... you can't follow."

Keiich's eyes shut in pain as Urd began quietly singing, sobbing the notes to the lullaby she had always sang for Gersemi.

"Keiichi," Sif said quietly as she wrapped an arm around Urd. "Help me get her to her room."

888

She found him in the nursery, sweeping some broken porcelain into a dustpan. He didn't acknowledge her presence, too deep in his own thoughts and worries to notice her.

"Keiichi?" she asked softly.

"Yeah?" he replied just as quietly.

"You should sleep," she said. "She's down for now, I put some Enka on... so she can rest."

"I don't want to sleep," he said. He looked up at the ceiling and let out a slow breath.

"You can't keep pushing yourself like this," Sif told him, finally entering the room. "You will do no good for her if you burn yourself out. There's two of us here now. You can afford to relax... even if only a little."

"She was going to burn herself to death," he whispered hauntingly. "How do I close my eyes and go to sleep knowing that?"

"I can put you under," Sif told him, half an offer, half a threat.

He caught her eyes and took another breath. "But if something happened and you needed help, I wouldn't wake up, would I?"

"No," Sif said. "But at this point, I am willing to take that risk. You're _killing yourself_, Keiichi," she whispered.

He took another breath and cleared his throat. "Okay," he said. "Okay, we'll give it a try. Let me take this out to the curb first."

Sif nodded, and Keiichi poured the contents of the dustpan into a garbage bag with the splintered remains of the bassinet his father had made for them and a few other articles that had been destroyed when Urd built her funeral pyre.

Grabbing the bag, he walked outside and down the temple steps to where the garbage cans had been set out earlier that morning. Opening one, he dumped the bag inside and started up the steps again, completely missing the soft red light that formed at the bottom of the can, consuming it and then replacing it with an empty replica a moment later.

888

Tabitha pulled the small probe from half a bowl's worth of Russian porridge and looked at it in disgust as the goop dripped onto the table. The demoness took a breath before offering a pleading look to the demon standing across the table from her.

"All of it?" she asked in a pleading tone.

"All of it," Metheus confirmed. He said this with a wave to the trash can's remaining contents. "Until we have an opportunity to search the residence, we need to be sure any potential evidence is scanned... that means the garbage."

"Yes, but..." She raised the porridge again as part of her argument. "I mean... what do you hope to find here?"

"I _hope_ to find nothing," Metheus told her. "I hope that you scan every atom of this waste and find absolutely nothing of value. The less we find, Tabitha, the better the odds that this whole thing was an accident."

"You're _hoping_ that we find nothing?" Tabitha asked incredulously. She shook her head angrily. "The Dark Lady help you, Metheus, if this ends up being a waste of my time."

The Inquisitor started for the door as he answered. "If this _isn't_ a waste of your time, then that means you've found something," he said. "And if you find something, Tabitha, then that means we're at war... The Dark Lady help us all."

_The Present..._

The sound of her daughter's voice pulled Hild from her memories.

"I could have killed him," Urd whispered, her fingernails digging into the countertop. Her back to Sif, the blonde couldn't see the haunted look in her friend's eyes. She swallowed and shook her head. "How do I... How do I not remember this?"

Hild cleared her throat and composed herself. While she had been thinking about her end of it, Sif had been telling Urd about hers. This tip-toeing around the main issue was pissing her off, and if it wasn't for that bargain she had made with Keiichi, it would all already be out in the open where her daughter could deal with it. Right now, however, she was forced to wait while Sif took her sweet-ass time leading up to it.

"Nyd calls it post-traumatic suppression," Sif told her. "While Gersemi's loss was so traumatic that it usurped your entire being, the specific actions you took in its wake were not as... severe... so your mind was able to block it out."

"He should have left me," Urd whispered, more to herself than them. "Why didn't he leave?"

Sif opened her mouth to answer, but Hild beat her to it.

"Because he's your husband," she told him flatly. She stepped toward her daughter and placed her hands on Urd's shoulders. "I give Keiichi a lot of credit for the things he did back then. It wasn't easy for him."

Urd pulled away from her and stepped away. "How much contact did you have with him? You talk as if the two of you are best friends or something!"

"Bonds form, Little One," Hild told her icily. "They form from shared grief... from shared adversity... You may absolutely hate the idea of him and I having some form of relationship, but you're going to have to square with that, because he and I are bonded together... brothers to the bone."

888

Keiichi rose carefully to his feet just as Belldandy was falling to her knees. He gingerly knelt next to her, still in pain himself.

"Hey," he whispered. "You okay?" He reached out and caught her as she started to slump to the concrete floor.

"I'm all right," she replied in exhaustion. "I think... I think I went too fast after all."

"Just rest, okay?" he told her. "Try to sleep."

She nodded, intent on following his advice but changed her mind as she watched him stand and start for the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Home," he said. "That's where Urd is, and I've got to do something."

She started to struggle to a sitting position. "Then I'm coming with you."

"You're in no condition to take on Hild," Keiichi argued.

"You speak as if you are!" Belldandy suddenly snapped.

"I might not be a god," he told her quietly. "But I know Hild. I know how she thinks."

"Keiichi san," Belldandy whispered. "What did you do? Tell me."

Keiichi paused. The question itself had the effect of forcing him to stop and think for a moment. Yes, he knew how Hild thought, and he also knew no matter their past, she was not one to be fucked with. He needed a plan, and right now he didn't have one.

He knelt next to the goddess again and bowed his head as he thought of what to say. "Peorth once told me something," he began quietly. "That a man has responsibilities to the women in his life, and that if he fails to live up to them... he can't call himself a man." He paused and took a breath. "My wife was insane," he choked out. He bit his lip.

"Keiichi san..."

"My wife was insane," he repeated, shaking his head. "And it all seemed like a cruel joke... Like God was punishing us for something. Knowing what I knew then... I couldn't do the natural thing for a man and stop believing in him... I knew for a fact he existed... But so help me, Belldandy, I hated him."

Belldandy said nothing, shocked at the admission.

"And from what I learned since then... even though it wasn't his doing, his fault, I can't say I feel much differently," he went on. "My wife was insane... and no one in Heaven cared enough to find out why... People in Hell had to."

_Four years ago..._

Metheus placed the broken piece of ceramic on the table between them and sat back in his chair as Hild's slender fingers reached out and gently picked it up.

"This?" she breathed incredulously.

"Part of a cup at one time," Metheus told her. "We found it in their garbage. Had Tabitha not been thorough when scanning it, we would have missed it completely. It's emitting metaphasic radiation... on a very specific wavelength."

"Dangerous?" the queen asked.

"Not to you or I, no," Metheus explained. "For the most part, it's completely harmless. You see..." He leaned forward and laced his fingers together. "Metaphasic radiation acts like a jammer, saturating the area around it, but it can only affect connections working on the same frequency. In this case, a spiritual frequency."

Hild examined the small fragment closely.

Metheus wasn't sure it was wise to be specific, but he knew that Hild would want to know all of it. "It disrupted the spiritual connection between your daughter and granddaughter," he said. "It eroded the bond between them... And your granddaughter was not yet at the point where she could survive without that spiritual umbilical. In essence... spiritually speaking, I mean..."

"It starved her to death," Hild whispered, her eyes not leaving the fragment.

Metheus waited a heartbeat before answering. "Quite."

Hild released a deep breath. "Then it appears we have our answer. Unless you believe this could have been an accident of some sort."

"No, Majesty," he said concretely. "I do not."

Hild wrapped her fingers around the fragment and squeezed until the broken edges drew blood. "Then you are officially telling me that the heir to the Onyx Throne was assassinated."

Again he gave it a moment before answering. "I am."

The queen's cruel gaze broke from the fragment in her hand and found his eyes. "And what, pray tell, are you doing about it?"

"There are only a few alchemists in Creation capable of work like this," Metheus told her, nodding to the fragment in her hand. "We're seeking them out to make... polite inquiries."

888

The gloved hand touched the bulkhead, and the entire side of the Goshawk vanished, revealing the dimly-lit scenery whizzing by below them. The hand dropped to a pouch and pulled a brass ring from it six inches across.

"You BJ's get all the neat toys, don't you?" the voice of the lone Recovery Agent in the Goshawk asked as the demon in question handled his own ring.

The figure at the door looked up at him, the coal-black eyes of the kabuki mask it wore boring into the eyes of their "law enforcement presence."

The Recovery Agent cleared his throat nervously under the silent gaze. "No offense meant..."

The masked figure turned back to the open space without a word.

"One minute," the word came from the mission commander. "Two, Six, block. Three, Seven, the door. Four, Eight, watch the exit. We're joint, so no active camouflage. Weapons free."

The figure removed the safety from the carbine in its left hand while anxiously gripping the ring in its right.

The Goshawk came to a smooth and silent stop.

"Go."

A beam of black light shot down into the ground from an emitter just over the side of the Goshawk. The figure reached out and caught the light within the brass ring as it flung itself out of the aircraft. The ring rode the light the fifty feet to the ground, taking its passenger down at the fastest rate it safely could.

Boots on the ground, the ring was released, and the carbine came up. The figure dashed up the stairs of the small but stately home as other kabuki-masked figures fanned out around her. There was no reaction from within the house yet. The Goshawk was so quiet that it couldn't even be heard from within, and with its black finish, she couldn't even find it in the sky any longer.

She took up a position on the left side of the door while Three took the right. His pitch-black eyes found hers and nodded. Stepping back, she raised her foot and kicked the door in with a crash.

The Recovery Agent watched from the doorway as Hell's two soldiers flew through the doorway and into the house. He heard two suppressed shots and after a tense moment, a "Clear!"

The soldier who had glared at him earlier reappeared with a nymph, its arms cuffed behind its back and a dazed look on its face. The soldier pushed the creature toward him with a dismissive shove.

The soldier reached up and removed the kabuki mask, letting her violet hair flow down her shoulders. "Confirm, please," Ameko prompted.

The Recovery Agent quickly examined the nymph's face and nodded. "That's her."

888

"One, Seven. Package secure. Awaiting exfil."

Listening to the feed in his office, Metheus took a sip of tea before commenting. "That's it," he said. "We got her."

Sitting across from him, Tabitha nodded. "They're frightening to watch," she told him.

"Bonejackers are supposed to be frightening," Metheus replied.

Tabitha hesitated before making her next point. "Even so... using them like this... outside of the Demon Realm... Technically speaking, My Lord... It's an act of war."

"If you wish to explain that to Her Majesty, you are welcome to," Metheus informed her, taking a sip of his tea. "I doubt that she cares, however."

"What next?" she asked.

"We have a chat with our new friend," Metheus told her.

888

"It was surprisingly quick," Metheus noted as he took the drink from Hild's offering hand.

"Then perhaps she's lying," Hild remarked critically.

Metheus smiled as he made his way to one of the red velvet seats in Hild's sitting room. "I don't believe so. Tabitha is... quite thorough."

Hild sat across from him and swirled the blood-red liquid around in her glass as she considered what her Inquisitor was telling her. "This... sect..." she began.

"The Balancers," Metheus supplied.

"Yes..." Hild continued. "I've heard of them. A very reclusive group."

"Indeed," he told her. "Very little is known, but we are bringing all of our intelligence assets to bear on them. One thing we do know, however, is that the diplomatic fallout of... well... whatever it is you decide to do... should be negligible. They broke away before Doublet took effect."

Hild's eyes burned into him. "Are you implying, Inquisitor, that politics would influence my pursuit of justice?"

"Not at all, Majesty," he replied. "Merely that that justice will be infinitely easier to obtain." He rose to his feet. "I must return to the office. We are still hunting."

"Thank you, Inquisitor," she said. "I have business of my own to attend to."

Something about the way she said it made Metheus pause. "Oh?" he asked.

"Don't look too much into it," Hild told him. "Proceed as you have been. Find these people, Metheus. Find out where they live. Draw whatever resources you feel you need. I'll tell General Corus you have carte blanche."

He nodded in thanks. "It shall be as you will, Majesty."

888

Keiichi lifted the lid of the trash can and dumped the bag into it. Standing there a moment, he took in the morning air and relished it. Taking out the trash was one of the few times he left the house anymore, and he milked it for everything it was worth. It has been two weeks since Urd had tried to set herself ablaze, and he wished he could say she was getting better. Truth was, he and Sif were just more on their game now.

He replaced the lid of the can and jumped when noticed the woman standing on the other side of it, seeming to appear out of nowhere.

"Jeez!"

Hild's eyes were intense as she said, "We need to talk." She raised a hand and snapped her fingers. A moment later, they were sitting together in a booth in what appeared to be a very tacky Mexican restaurant.

Finally with a moment to gather himself, Keiichi rallied. "Hild! What the... Where are we?"

"Someplace safe," she said. "Away from prying eyes."

"Prying eyes?" he asked.

She leaned back in the booth but didn't elaborate. "How is she?" she asked quietly.

Already frustrated by months of living on the ragged edge, Keiichi stifled a macabre chuckle. "How the hell do you think she is, Hild?"

"And how are you?" she asked.

He stared into her eyes for several moments before whispering, "How the hell do you think I am?"

She tapped her fingernail against the tabletop. "I know it's not easy," she said.

"Yeah, well, I'll at least give you credit," Keiichi said. "You at least ask. I haven't heard or seen anything from..." He raised his eyes to the sky in way of explanation.

Hild bit her lip angrily. Whatever had passed between her and Urd's father, the god could at least act like a man and see his daughter.

"She'd probably try to kill him," Hild noted.

"Not funny," Keiichi growled, his own near miss with Urd's madness still fresh in his mind.

The demonic queen took a breath. "Keiichi," she began, "You've always been good to her, and that's why I'm here. Because I've learned something... and you deserve to know what it is."

He took a weary breath and shook his head. "What, Hild? What can you possibly tell me that's going to make a difference now?"

Her eyes trapped his. "It wasn't an accident," she said. "Somebody did... that... to Urd deliberately." She watched Keiichi's eyes go wide with shock and then anger. "And I know who."

_The Present..._

"One day he went to take the garbage out," Sif said, looking down at the table top. "And he didn't come back for more than an hour. When he did come back... I thought... I thought he had seen a ghost..."

Her eyes came up and locked onto Hild. "But it was you, wasn't it? That's when you told him."

"Told him what?" Urd demanded.

"Yes, Sif," Hild backed up her daughter. "Told him what?"

888

"They're called 'The Balancers,'" Keiichi said. "Apparently, a long long LONG time ago, they broke away from Heaven and the Demon Realm. They think that the entire universe is a balance and at the center of that balance is the Almighty."

"I suppose, in a way, that makes sense," Belldandy told him. "The universe came from the Almighty..."

"And all the sentient creatures in the universe as well," Keiichi added. "They think that each one, human, god, demon... what-have-you... Every one is an equal fraction of whatever the Almighty is. When you combine them together... you get God."

Belldandy listened as Keiichi explained, folding his hands together and biting his lip as he found a good way to explain it.

"When Urd first got pregnant, I assumed that Gersemi would be like Hercules or something... Not a god or a mortal, but something in between... not as powerful as a goddess, but not as weak as a mortal... Does that make sense?"

At Belldandy's nod, he continued.

"The Balancers think that... at a deeper, spiritual level, the strengths are combined," he went on. And when that happens, the balance goes out of whack. It's like... say you have a waterbed, and you put some baseballs all over it, what happens? They basically just sit there, right? Now take three of those baseballs away and replace them with a bowling ball. What happens? The bowling ball sinks, and the other baseballs are drawn toward it. There's no balance anymore."

Belldandy lay there, her mind awhirl with the implications.

"The Balancers believe that if you continue that chain... Say if Gersemi had been born, the daughter of three worlds, and she met a nymph and fell in love and they had a child. Now you have four worlds, and the balance is thrown further out of whack. You keep going down that chain and eventually..."

"You get a second Almighty one," Belldandy muttered.

"And they'll do anything to prevent it," Keiichi growled, the anger of four years coming back to him. "They killed Gersemi to prevent it."

"What about Neesan?" Belldandy asked. "She's..."

"The first generation mixes they let slide," he said. "Otherwise they'd have to kill too many, bring attention to themselves. But the second generation mixes... those are less likely, so when something bad happens to them... people think it's just too many systems at once. Even Nyd thought so."

"Almighty in Heaven," Belldandy whimpered, tears coming to her eyes.

"I found out later that it's incredibly rare for a second generation mixed child to make it to term," Keiichi told her. "And no one knew for sure why... until four years ago."

888

"Told him _what_, Sif?" Urd thundered.

The blonde looked up at her, tears in her eyes. "Urd, please don't make me tell you."

Urd stepped forward and put her hands on her friend's shoulders and looked into her eyes. "How will I ever find peace with this," she said, "if you don't?"

Sif took her hands and squeezed, instinctively holding her in preparation for the reaction that she knew would come.

It seemed to come to the Norn in pieces. She saw Sif's lips moving independent of the sounds reaching her ears, the information arriving in her mind, the feel of her hands in Sif's.

She felt the breath leave her chest, her eyes blinking as if trying to wake from a nightmare. She took a step back, felt her hands leave Sif's, her butt striking the counter behind her. Her mouth opened, but for the life of her she couldn't hear the scream, it seemed far away. Everything moved slower, as if the entire world decided it needed a moment to digest this.

The world's clock kicked in again as strong hands grabbed her arms and swung her around. Suddenly, violet eyes were staring into her own.

"Don't fight it!" Hild told her sternly, giving her a shake. "Don't!"

Sif rose to her feet but was unsure of what to do.

"Don't fight it!" Hild growled again. "Let it out, let it happen! Let it come out and turn into something else!"

Urd's mouth moved soundlessly, tears running down her cheeks as she shook her head in utter incomprehension.

Hild wrapped her arms around her daughter and squeezed tightly. "Let it happen, baby," she croaked out. "Let it happen. If you let it happen and accept it, you can say her name again. You can remember her, you can remember all of it if you accept it."

Urd slowly raised her hands and wrapped her arms around Hild's back as she screamed into her mother's shoulder.

"Let it become something else," Hild told her in a whisper. "I know it's hard. I know it's hard. It's going to be okay. Just let it become something else... Let it be anger, let it be grief, but face it. Face it, baby."

Sif watched in agony as Urd continued to scream silently into Hild's sleeve. She heard rushed footsteps and turned to find Mischa in the doorway, summoned by the noise.

"What is..."

Before he could finish, Sif had wrapped her arms around him.

"Oh, Mischa!" she cried into his shoulder.

Seeing Urd hugging Hild, Mischa suddenly felt very out of place. "Come," he said softly to the goddess, pulling her to the door. "We give them time, da?"

At Sif's silent nod, he led her into the living room and down the hall.

888

Skuld looked nervously behind her as she walked, surrounded by two gods and two demons, up the street toward the temple. Ipos was in the lead, his eyes scanning for movement through the downpour around them, checking trees, the tops of walls, nearby roofs, any sign at all for Ameko. The gods and demons all wore long raincoats, both to keep from being drenched by the rain and to conceal the carbines beneath.

"Are you sure about this?" Skuld asked for the seventh time.

Ipos glanced back at her. "Do you want to save your sister?" he asked.

"Of course I want to save my sister!" she hissed back.

"Then worry about dropping that barrier and not about the Bonejacker," Ipos growled. "We'll take care of her. Just do your part."

Skuld growled. She wasn't a big fan of Ipos, and part of her wished that she had been allowed to go with Esus. At least he had some manners.

They climbed the steps to the torii gate and stopped at the sight of the ethereal dome that covered the temple. Away from the prying eyes of neighborhood mortals, the gods and demons removed their carbines from their jackets and searched the area with their eyes, wary of any unknown movement.

"Okay," Ipos said as he looked around. "Get on it."

Skuld stepped forward and stood beneath the torii. The edge of the dome was just on the other side. She big her lip and tried to remember the lyrics to the song Sif had sung all those years ago.

"SHHH!"

She froze for a moment before turning. The gods had raised their weapons. One of them, Kalarin, had raised her right fist.

"She's here," she whispered.

"Where?" Ipos demanded.

"Close," Kalarin said, her breath quickening. "Really close..."

Ipos waved for Skuld to get down, and the goddess crouched next to the gate as the gods and demons arrayed themselves in a circle, each of them facing outward in a different direction.

"Kalarin?"

The goddess shook her head, staring off into space as if trying to see something that wasn't there. "I know she's close..."

"We need a position."

"I don't have one," the goddess bit back. "Close! That's all I have! Close!"

Ipos sighted down the barrel of his carbine and searched every tree branch, every roof in his quadrant. "Where _is_ she?" he growled. "I don't see _anything_!"

Skuld's eyes widened as a shimmer, a disturbance in the light, struck the ground in the center of the circle. A half-second later, Ipos' head was rolling off his torso and striking the muddy water at his feet. Before his body had come to rest on the ground, the god next to him was cut in half.

Kalarin turned and fired, red lances of light striking her only remaining teammate, who screamed and fell backward even as the glint of metal pierced Kalarin's neck and just as quickly disappeared.

As the last goddess's body fell to the ground, Skuld saw the disturbance in the light coalesce into a deadly figure. Ameko stood among the bodies, her katana raised as she checked each one, blood and rain mixing on the end of the blade and dripping onto the people Skuld had only a few moments ago been speaking with.

Ameko's head turned, and Skuld saw the demon's face hidden behind a white kabuki mask. Round, black eyes, like a shark's eyes, found the young goddess.

Skuld turned and started to flee, but yelped and fell back onto her butt as the blade of Ameko's katana bit into the wood of the torii gate in front of her face. Looking up, she now saw those pitch black eyes only inches from her own. She gagged as a gloved hand grasped her around the throat and pinned her to the ground.

The young goddess fought for breath as she clawed at the hand on her throat.

"Why are you doing this?" she managed to squeak.

From the other side of the mask, Ameko regarded the goddess pitilessly, but gave the question honest thought.

888

"What did you tell Hild," Belldandy asked quietly. "When she told you?"

Keiichi didn't meet her gaze. He looked out the window instead.

"Keiichi san," Belldandy asked again. "What did you tell her?"

_Four years ago..._

Keiichi sat in the booth, unsure of what to say or think.

_"What was I supposed to tell her, Belldandy?"_

His eyes found the top of the table as he swallowed, his guts felt like they were about to leap out of his mouth...

_"What do you say when you find out that your wife was deliberately driven mad?"_

He shut his eyes, squeezing hard as tears of renewed grief and anger threatened to fall, their vanguard already striking the tabletop near his hand.

_"That your unborn daughter, who you'll never hold... never lay eyes on... never speak to..."_

Another tear hit his hand, and his fingers curled one by one into a fist.

_"... never teach to change out a transmission... or fly a plane... or... or walk down the aisle..."_

He grit his teeth as he opened his eyes.

_"... that you'll never have those things... ever... because some heartless bastard decided that the only way to keep his god in business was to... poison her in the womb?"_

His brown orbs rose and found Hild looking back at him, wondering what he would say or do next.

_"What do you say to all that, Belldandy? What does any man say?"_

"Okay," Keiichi whispered. "So what are _we_ going to do about it?"

* * *

Author's notes:

Sorry this took so long. Between work, school and a new project I'm not yet able to disclose, I've been pretty busy. Hopefully I'll be able to write more now.


End file.
